IMPERATOR 




rrw5ssi^*?s52ri 



t«M» * «s» » t.- • j-rfaa*;*.^ 



^UTHOR( 

IHEMARTYRDOMOFANEMPRESS 




Class. 
Book. 



.Cl 



JO 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

WILLIAM II. OF GERMANY 



BY THE AUTHOR OF 

"THE MARTYRDOM OF 
AN EMPRESS" 

ILLUSTRATED 




HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 
NEW YORK AND LONDON 

1904 



nt'^'-'^ 



y 



CI 



TWO •loril^i RpTfiwrt 

SEP 8 1904 

■ICLASS: Ci XXo. No. 
' COPY B 



Copyright, 1904, by Harpbr & Brothers. 

Alt 7-i^hts reserved. 
Published September, 1904. 






0\ 



Q ^ TO 



EMPEROR WILLIAM IL 

WHO 

— moving up from high to higher, 
Becomes on Fortune's crowning slope 
The pillar of a people's hope, 

The centre of a world's desire." 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



WILLIAM, I. R Frontispiece 

PORTRAIT AND AUTOGRAPH OF PRINCE WILLIAM 
AT THE TIME OF HIS ENROLMENT IN THE 

ARMY Facing p. 1 6 

ON THE JUNGFERNSEE THE FOUNDER OF GER- 
MANY'S NAVAL POWER " 22 

PRINCE WILLIAM SKETCHING NEAR BONN ..." 42 

PRINCE HENRY OF PRUSSIA, BROTHER OF THE 

EMPEROR " 76 

"what FIERY GLEAMS OF ANGER " " I16 

THE EMPEROR, A FEW YEARS AFTER HIS AC- 
CESSION " 176 

AFTER A HARD MORNING's WORK " 1 86 

THE EMPEROR " CROSS-COUNTRY RIDING " . . " I96 
STEERING HIS BOAT IN THE FJORDS .... " 2o6 
RETURNING FROM A CHAMOIS HUNT .... " 222 

A LESSON IN strategy! " 234 

CHARLOTTE, HEREDITARY PRINCESS OF SAXE- 
MEININGEN, ELDEST SISTER OF THE EM- 
PEROR " 240 

BERNHARDT, HEREDITARY PRINCE OF SAXE- 
MEININGEN, HUSBAND OF PRINCESS CHAR- 
LOTTE, THE emperor's ELDEST SISTER . . " 244 
BREAKFASTING, " EN TtTE-A-TETE,'' ON A WINTER 

MORNING " 276 

"let not THY LEFT HAND KNOW" .... " 280 



Helmed and tall, on Baltic sands, 
Gray as the gray steel in her hands, 
A Valkyr waits, and, piercingly 
Roving the mist-clad, weary sea. 
An answer her blue glance demands. 

Comes the sad Twilight? Shall the strands 
Of Fate enmesh in bitter bands 
The Gods — O thou in panoply 
Helmed and tall? 

Ah, never, never, while she stands 
To glimpse the flash of hostile brands! 
This cup, Germania, to thee 
I drink. Be ever strong and free. 
And guard thou royal, loyal lands, 
Helmed and tall! 

M. M. 



IMPERATOR ET REX 



CHAPTER I 

The pretty, placid little city of Bonn was sunning 
itself in the brilliant morning light, where it nestles 
beside the deep, blue Rhine. The broad river danced 
and gurgled as it sped away, with shoals of diamonds, 
emeralds, and sapphires flashing on its gleaming surface 
wherever the sun caught its ripples ; and on the Es- 
planade and the Promenade the chestnuts had just 
burst into pink-and-white bloom, while in the " Hof- 
garten" there were some delightful bits of greensward, 
with fountains splashing here and there melodiously 
above beds of begonias, geraniums, and heliotrope. 
Now and again clumps of rose-laurel, of pomegranate, 
dotted with their crimson flowers like crumpled silk 
crepe, and of sulphur-hued mimosa brought from the 
Royal Conservatories, raised their more ambitious heads 
beneath fine old lindens and Italian poplars in all the 
glory of their spring livery. 

It was almost noon, and the cloudless splendor of the 
intensely blue May sky bathed every nook and comer, 
while in the distance the strains of a military band 
were faintly audible above the ringing laughter of some 
golden-locked, blue-eyed Teuton babies, running after 
flocks of pale tinted butterflies, and the noisy quarrels of 
countless rowdy sparrows tumbling one another in the 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

dew, which, hke a veil of silver gossamer spangled with 
crystal, still lingered in the thick grass. 

At the stroke of twelve a young man of nineteen or 
twenty walked swiftly from the " Universitdts-Gebaude " 
towards the " Coblenzer-Thor," looking neither to right 
nor to left, and absent-mindedly touching the visor of his 
student-cap in silent and almost mechanical acknowl- 
edgment of the many low obeisances greeting him on 
all sides. 

It was difficult not to be struck by the lithe elasticity 
of the slim figure, betraying a subdued overflow of 
energy, a sort of repressed vitality, a vigor and a nerve 
quite unusual. His dark -blue eyes — marvellous, intense, 
and changeable in tint and expression with every 
varying mood — were fixed intently before him, as if he 
could actually see and follow the shining thread of a 
dream as it wound away from his active brain, and, 
indeed, in that seductive Lenten weather, a solitary 
young man's fancy might be much inclined to turn to 
bright and enticing visions. 

"There is a lad who will some day astonish the world, 
for he is cast in no ordinary mould." 

The speaker was an old man, not very tall, not very 
heavily built, square-faced, but with delicate, strong 
features, a rather prominent nose, a large, thin-lipped, 
sarcastic, firmly chiselled mouth, and humorous, rest- 
less, deep-set eyes, which were known from one end of 
Europe to the other as belonging to that King of Wits 
Prince Gortchakow, Chancellor of All the Russias. He 
had his weaknesses, his foibles, but he was a true Slav 
in intuitive sagacity, possessed unerring acumen, and a 
mind as sensitive in its instincts as an electric wire is 
to heat, for which excellent reasons his words created 
a great impression upon me. 

"This young Hohenzollern," he continued, in his 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

well-modulated voice, which had, however, a kind of 
trenchant edge upon it that gave it an immense amount 
of character — "this young Hohenzollem will considerably 
outshine all his predecessors on the Throne; he will " — 
here he waved a hand, in color like dusky ivory, but 
still muscular and peremptory — "be the mainspring of 
Germany, my dear child, and his influence will be felt 
throughout Europe!" 

Here the Prince looked at the gold crook of his cane, 
just as a crystal -gazer into his crystal, and, as if he 
descried something deliciously comical on its polished 
surface; the lines about his humorous old mouth deep- 
ened and quivered, then he glanced up at me. 

"Ah! you smile, madame! You think that I am 
overstraining my prophetic gifts," he said, with a 
chuckle, his eyes swimming in a glow of delighted 
merriment; "but no, I am not burdening my soul with 
an anticipatory falsehood, for there lies in wait in this 
boy's person a tremendous surprise for the Teutonic 
race, and for the world at large, as well. ' C'est le cas 
de le direr'' 

We had by now arrived at the end of the " Hatipt- 
Allee," and crossed the road to retrace our steps on the 
opposite side. It appeared to me as if there were a 
heady fragrance in the air, a something suggestive of a 
million mysterious voices whispering secrets. The sun 
was flooding the wide prospect with a marvellously 
ethereal amber light, and I turned eagerly to my sage 
political mentor, who I saw was still in the vein of 
prophecy, 

"Do you seriously mean all that?" I asked, simply to 
set him going again. 

"Do I seriously mean that this at present shy, some- 
what stilted, and ' efface ' youth will one day astonish 
the world? Of course I mean it, ' cent fois plus qu'une.' 

3 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

I am only astonished that there are not more people 
to divine it; but, alas! one always has to look closely 
and minutely to see anything that is really worth 
seeing; the kind of moral or physical beauty that 
jumps at you is bound to be shallow and worthless, a 
mere simulacrum, an approximation to the genuine 
article. It's absurd — but there it is! Prince William 
is a nature inexhaustible of promise. He is deep as a 
well. Wit, generosity, race, nerve, prompt decision, 
energy in action, absolutely unbending obstinacy of 
purpose, pluck, and a rare intelligence are all there, 
with a great deal besides. All the mystery and magic, 
the essential principles of sovereignty, are there, too. 
He will be a man in the full acceptation of the word. I 
see and feel it, and the future, in so far as he is concerned, 
is miraculously real to me." 

With which peroration Gortchakow decapitated at one 
blow of his stout walking - cane six or seven venture- 
some dandelions staining with their dazzling gold the 
puritanically immaculate lawn we were skirting. 

"There is a kind of intangible sense of responsibility 
in such sayings," I said, picking up the "dear remains" 
of the dandelions and tossing them meditatively in my 
left hand. 

"There is also, perhaps, a very tangible sense of 
impudence in so coolly appropriating the future of a 
monarch that is to be," he replied, laughing. "But 
prophets are the most unprincipled of people, as you 
may now notice, and never carry delicacy too far. It 
is by no means a joke, I assure you, to have the 'seeing 
eye.' Nevertheless, I wish I could live long enough to 
prove to you that my horoscope is unimpeachable. 
Unfortunately I shall in all probability be long dead 
and forgotten when our young friend ascends the dual 
Throne of Prussia and Germany." 

4 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

During the years that elapsed before these words 
were proven beyond a doubt, they kept recurring and 
recurring to me, and it is because that prophecy was so 
startlingly true a one that, after a quarter of a century, 
I have transcribed it here word for word. Indeed, that 
May morning is indehbly imprinted upon my memory, 
as vivid a picture as had I been through this curious 
experience only yesterday. 

I can still see the little old town, with the dazzling sun- 
rays burning upon it, the long, irregular masses of houses 
standing out in varying shades of gray and dull red 
against varying shades of green, with a transparent blue 
penumbra where the clear-cut shadows fell, and the 
little old man walking beside me, the lines of humor em- 
phasizing themselves around his faded lips, and his eyes 
twinkling with that particularly contagious " esprit " 
which one rarely encounters outside the Slav or Latin 
races. 

I remember perfectly, too, the brightness of that 
spring weather, green and blue like a cluster of larkspurs, 
and so different from the silvery skies, aquamarine seas, 
and purple heathers of mine own native land. 

To-day the quiet, unobtrusive, almost constrained 
student of the Bonn University has brought to pass 
all that was then told me, and much more than that; 
and even Gortchakow, his Prophet in Extraordinary, 
were he to come to life again, would perchance be 
amazed at the felicity of the words he pronounced while 
we strolled together at random under the spreading 
fragrance of the acacia blossoms and the great limes, 
gently bending beneath the weight of their intoxicatingly 
odoriferous clusters of flowerets. 

Often, also, my retina reacts like a photographic plate, 
and another picture develops itself — a quite circum- 
stantial picture it is, too. 

S 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

A stretch of wind-flogged water becomes visible anew 
to me, and the deck of a small pleasure yacht laboriously- 
beating its way up the Rhine in the teeth of one of the 
terrible white squalls so common to that river in the 
early spring. Prince Gortchakbw, leaning against the 
bulwarks at my side, and gazing abstractedly at the 
poignantly sombre sky above us and at the flying foam 
scattered all over the tumultuous surface of the water, 
as by a gigantic fan, says, suddenly: 

"If eyes were made for seeing, see and admire the 
superb contrast between the glories of this morning and 
the desolation of this twilight, between the merry songs 
of the birds we then listened to, the shameless extrav- 
agance of flowers and verdure and sunshine, the riot of 
intoxicated insects buzzing in the deep, cool greenery, 
and the infernal gloom of those bellying clouds like an 
army with threatening banners zigzagging up from the 
world's rim to engulf us." 

"It's my duty to caution you," I remark, prudently, 
"that you will soon be drenched to the skin if you per- 
sist in remaining on deck." 

"I am not dreaming of denying it," replies the Prince, 
submissively. "But all I have to say, if you can bear 
the whole improbable truth at once, is that I am going 
to watch this storm from here. I am appreciative of 
your kind care, and I may add that you are without 
exception the nicest child I have ever met, but my 
obstinacy is proverbial, and remain on deck I will!" 

At this juncture a small canoe, dangerously narrow 
and hght, appears within our visual ray. It is tossing 
like a cork upon the turbulent river, and looks as if 
at any moment it must heel over and precipitate its 
occupant into the swift current. As the yacht and the 
canoe shoot past each other, at the merest fraction of a 
cable's length, we recognize the slender youth paddling 

6 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

against such odds, and with so fierce a contentment ex- 
pressed in every Hne of his set face and determined blue 
eyes. 

"Prince William!" we both exclaim at once, in ter- 
rified amazement, but almost before we can order the 
yacht's course to be checked and proffer our assistance 
the tiny craft has reached the shelter of the city quays ; 
and although we halt for a quarter of an hour in mid- 
stream, we know that the Royal lad is safe and that 
he needs not our assistance, for on that young face 
there shone a quality of expression rare indeed and 
wholly reassuring, and in those deep, haunting eyes, the 
constant miracle of absolute pluck and all-conquering 
power. 

"y^ vous V avals bien dit que c'est un gaillard qui n'a 
pas froid aux yeux!" 

It is the voice of Gortchakow raised above the shrill 
clamor of the wind ; then we both look at each other, for 
the prophecy stands out with singular clearness against 
the background of our minds; and although the Chan- 
cellor adds, in his usual bantering tone, " See how mighty 
is the truth! See how she prevails! See how the scoffer 
is confounded!" yet I now feel how serious is his mean- 
ing, how perfect and complete his diagnosis of the future 
Emperor's character. 

After a few minutes' silence I remark: "What of that 
crippled arm one hears so much about? He seemed to 
be using it pretty freely." 

"Oh," replies the Prince, dryly, "those reports, 
like the rest, are far from accurate. It is no disfigurement 
whatsoever; there is some lack of power, some in- 
convenience, some discomfort, but with an ardent nature 
like his this mishap has only served to urge him on to 
greater effort. In every instance he is bent upon out- 
doing those who are not hampered by a similar defect, 

7 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

and he succeeds; yes, yes, my dear, he is the very em- 
bodiment of courage, perseverance, and endurance. 
Don't forget what I said this morning." 

Why, it is permitted to ask, have misconceptions 
and misleading statements always wheeled and swerved 
about that characterful personality, in a relentless flight 
like that of noxious insects? Why is the world so loath 
to recognize and acknowledge the resolute and forceful 
lines upon which it is built and the real beauties it 
possesses? Truth is often strange, and this one seems 
particularly so to the ingenious and ill-informed de- 
tractors who have elected to sit in judgment upon 
Emperor William ever since 1888, and, alas! even to 
many of those who have known him intimately from 
the very beginning. 

There is scarcely any action or speech of his, be it ever 
so trivial or insignificant, that has not been seized upon 
by eager hands and distorted in order to gratify popular 
prejudices. For instance, it has been adjudged a mat- 
ter of the most sinister import, that he, a constitutional 
Ruler, should have written Regis voluntas suprema lex, 
in the Golden Book of the Munich City Council. Now 
to me, as a monarchist, there is no maxim more just and 
right than this in its literal interpretation, but for the 
benefit of those professing different beliefs be it said, 
that the right of inscription in the Golden Book is re- 
served exclusively to members of the Reigning House 
of Bavaria, and that the Emperor, requested by the 
Prince Regent to write therein, at first declined, but at 
length laughingly complied, leaving the terrible Latin 
sentence merely as evidence of the fact that he did so 
at the command of the Sovereign. 

Oh! the alleged failings of this particular Monarch 
have been highly colored, but — pazienza — misrep- 
resentation cannot last forever, it is devoutly to be 

8 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

hoped, and meanwhile, without being too copious or too 
communicative, it may be permissible to set right a few 
distorted facts, which is the aim of this simple volume. 

On the 27th day of January, 1859, the capital of 
Prussia was suddenly roused from the despondency 
into which it had been thrown by the intense gloom of 
the political horizon and by the incurable malady of its 
King, Frederick William IV., who, entombed in the 
grim magnificence of an old Roman palace, was existing 
rather than living out his miserable days, a mental and 
physical wreck, under the unceasing care of his devoted 
consort, Queen Elizabeth. 

At four o'clock in the afternoon cannon had been 
fired — one hundred and twenty-one salvoes, if you 
please — booming loudly beneath the cold, bleak, snow- 
laden Northern sky, proclaiming to all the good citi- 
zens of Berlin the birth of a Royal Prince, of a future 
King of Prussia, and perchance of Great Britain * also — 
and hi! presto! the general air of dark melancholy, of 
resentful disenchantment, of sullen fatigue, which had 
enwrapped the town like a heavy, stifling mantle, made 
way with surprising swiftness for an atmosphere delight- 
fully wide-awake, joyous, and bright. 

The immense crowds of enthusiasts, suddenly filling 
all the streets and thoroughfares, might have tumbled 
from the skies, so unlike were they to the usually slow 
and circumspect population of the City on the Spree. 

* As the only grandchild of Queen Victoria, and the son of her 
eldest daughter, he was si.\th in succession to the English throne, 
the four preceding his mother being the Prince of Wales and 
his brothers, the Princes Alfred, Arthur, and Leopold. The 
birth of children to these other heirs has since placed Emperor 
William far down in the line of succession. 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

During thirty-six shots the throng, massed around 
the '' KronprinzlicJie- Palais " and the " Kupfergraben- 
Kaserne " — where two batteries of the '* Garde- Artillerie- 
Reginient" were firing those momentous salutes — had 
stood swaying with mouths half open, staring excited- 
ly into space, then,* as the thirty-seventh thundered 
forth, clear upon the frosty air rose endless shouts 
and hurrahs quite bewildering in their number, power, 
and volume, as they rhythmically neared and receded 
with the fluctuating motion of those closely packed 
ranks. 

It was truly a delicious plunge from saddest darkness 
into dazzling sunshine, from desolation into purest con- 
fidence and exultation, thrilling and romantic and fairy- 
like. Nor was there anything of the immature, the un- 
finished, or the tentative in this spontaneous popular 
revulsion of feeling, for it had the strength, the poise, 
the vigor, and the alertness of an absolute resurrection 
to all that is hopeful, generous and loyal. 

In the evening Berlin was " en-fete," the labyrinthine 
streets, avenues and counter-avenues of that, in those 
days, so frankly unlovely town were superbly illumi- 
nated, the black - blue of the winter night had been 
changed, as if at the touch of a magic wand, into golden 
blue, with broken shafts of prismatic colors caught in 
every sombre nook and angle, and wonderful chains of 
pink and blue and green and yellow globes gleaming 
through the shimmer of elfin-filaments woven by the 
busy hands of King Winter. 

A thicker veil, a gauze of pearl and silver, dimmed 
the glacial blue of the imprisoned river and blurred the 
solidified surface of the palace lake, but in this dim- 
ness, in this soft blur, were held in solution all the tints 

* Thirty-six shots is the salute for a Royal Princess. The 
thirty-seventh told the people that the Heir was born. 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

of the spectrum, so that one could discern elusive greens, 
fugitive roses, and translucent waves of lilac and amber, 
forming a sort of enchanted mist all around the spot 
where the cause of all this magnificence, the new-born 
babe, slumbered sweetly in his satin-lined crib. 

Happy as every one was, yet there was somebody 
happier than the very happiest, and that was the Prince 
Regent (later Emperor William I.), at the advent of 
this grandchild, destined one day to reign in his stead! 
Marvelling, palpitating with new hopes, he, as soon as 
the auspicious news had been brought to him by his 
aide-de-camp, Count Perponcher — who now at the age 
of eighty-five is still a great dignitary of the German 
Court — flew down the steps of the Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs, where he was at the moment, and, breathlessly 
pulling on his military overcoat as he ran, jumped into 
a passing cab — since in his impatience he would not 
await even the summoning of his own equipage — and 
promising the amazed Jehu a truly princely " douceur," 
drove in the wretched, mud-bespattered conveyance 
to greet the dainty morsel of humanity who was thus 
transforming present and future for him. 

Bewildered a little by the suddenness of his grand- 
fatherly beatitude, but conscious — acutely, exultantly 
conscious — of it as a delectable condition, he arrived at 
the " Kronprinzliche - Palais ," and the sight that met 
him there banished immediately all feelings personal, for 
His Royal Highness Prince Ferdinand-WiUiam-Victor- 
Albert was not one of those coarse, red-faced, squealing 
infants who frown themselves sourly into this vale of 
tears, but a delicate, pretty baby, with an exquisite text- 
ure of skin, smooth and rosily pale, the tiny blue veins 
faintly visible at the wee temples, and unusually alert 
and wide-open sapphire-hued eyes already showing a 
grave underglow, as if the very beginning of life was for 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

him an especially perilous undertaking, to be met with 
extreme energy. 

Poor little fellow! the firm curves of his satiny lips 
indicated already that energy was indeed one of the 
many gifts he had received as his portion. 

The first little cry heard by the grandfather startled 
him; it was a sharp, curious little cry, not of pain, but 
of simple self-assertion. " I am here!" it seemed to say, 
and the Regent shook with mirth while yet his eyes were 
liquid with emotion. 

Hovering around the little one, his imposing West- 
phalian nurse — Frau Hagedorn — was busy with a game 
of make-believe, pretending that some white robes — 
indescribable complexities of soft laces and airy ruffles 
— demanded her immediate attention in a distant cor- 
ner, but by a series of '' etapes" and ''detours'' of ex- 
ceeding strategic value, ever and ever again approach- 
ing her newly found hero, with a very commotion 
of pride and gratification fluttering within her vast 
bosom. 

It may be utterly impossible for some people to con- 
ceive the state of Frau Hagedorn's mind, and yet it is 
a solemn fact that before the Royal youngster was a 
week old, she had extracted from what she styled his 
"phenomenal voice" an immense amount of satisfac- 
tion. It gave her, she claimed, an impression of intense 
vitality, of singular power, of unknown possibilities, 
and, arguing from these premises, she, like Gortchakow, 
would prophesy. His Royal Highness — Frau Hagedorn 
was, from the very first, punctilious about such appel- 
lations — would one day be a noble, free-handed Prince 
of gigantic moral strength and achievements. It is sin- 
gular how truly inspired were all those prophecies! In- 
deed, she was nearly beside herself with pride at having 
been selected to nurse a scion of Royalty, so obviously 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

destined to make himself heard in the world. It is a 
way women have with their idols ! 

One day when Field-Marshal von Wrangel (Papa 
Wrangel as he used to be called) ventured to ask her 
if she considered little Prince William as " ein hiibscher 
Junge " (a pretty lad), the indignant nurse turned upon 
the aged warrior with flaming cheeks and fierce eyes, 
exclaiming : 

"A lad! Why, he is no lad at all — he is a Prince!" 

"But," suggested von Wrangel, as one loath to dog- 
matize in the tone of absolute assertion, "surely a 
Prince can be a pretty lad?" 

The conclusion of the interview is not stated, and I 
only mention this portion of it to give an object-lesson 
upon the difference existing between the devotion ram- 
pant, and the adoration regardant, which love arouses 
in the hearts of different feminine worshippers, and also 
to solemnly place on record that this particular Royal 
nurse was not one to stand dumb if an attack had been 
made upon her illustrious nurseling. Indeed, in his de- 
fence she became comparable to a lioness guarding 
her young, which is exactly as it should always be. 

The grounds immediately appertaining to the " Kron- 
prinzliche -Palais " were the undisputed domain of child 
and nurse, and Prince Willy, " der kleine Fritz " — as he 
was sometimes called within the family circle during 
his early youth — was kept as much as possible in the 
open air during that first winter of his life, in order to 
harden him, and to combat the delicacy of constitution 
that had from the first filled his grandfather's heart 
with so much tenderness and alarm. 

Months passed, and the weather grew mild, the snow- 
filled clouds drifted awa}^ the sun came back, and his 
rays were like gold that has been washed and polished 
very carefully by a master-hand. 

13 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

How good it is to be a toddling baby! How good, 
especially, to be swathed in the precious laces of a baby 
Prince, and to try one's first steps among the blue and 
purple irises, the white violets, and the golden prim- 
roses of a Royal Park, in gay June weather, with the 
birds carolling their liquid epithalamiums far above 
one's curly head, and the unavoidable sparrows coming 
and going, hopping fussily from twig to twig and loudly 
twittering of affairs all-important to them, while yet 
they dart wary little sidelong glances in quest of imag- 
inary enemies! 

Everything at that tender age affords especial inter- 
est and delight — the velvety spiders hanging motionless 
in their gossamer lairs, watching for giddy gnats and 
venturesome flies, the green caterpillars crawling under 
the leaves, the dew clinging in huge iridescent drops 
to the thick grass, shining ruby-red in the hearts of the 
roses, or gleaming in the delicately enamelled cups of 
the " boutons d'or," and, last but not least, the soft, re- 
current iterations of the cuckoo whispering in the mid- 
dle-distance untranslatable messages of joy and of hope. 

When the drowsiness of noon induces slumber, it is 
not a bad thing to lie curled up in a thick plaid upon 
the russet carpet of warm, crinkly needles beneath tall, 
flat-topped Italian pines, and to close one's bright eyes 
in slumber to the tune of some ancient melody droned 
by one's vigilant nurse. 

All these delicious experiences and many others were 
little Prince Willy's at that period of which I write; but, 
alas for the uncertain glories of Northern summers and 
Royal babyhoods! They both have their cold, gray 
spells, their scudding clouds, their periods of sadness 
and of lamentation. One cannot, of course, always go 
on laughing and singing in the face of infelicitous weath- 
er, when the wind gurgles and hoots in the chimney like 

14 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

a distracted banshee, nearly frightening one to death, 
and when the rainfalls drip, drip, drip, swish, swish, 
swish, upon the blotted landscape. 

It would indeed behoove every future Ruler to receive 
at his birth a toy sceptre, with a thorn of gold set into 
its handle in such a fashion as to prick the tender flesh 
of the baby-hand when he plays with it, thus accustom- 
ing him to what he has to expect from the training he 
must ultimately receive, that he may be fitted for his 
lofty office! 

Our little Prince soon learned to be big enough and 
wise enough to take interest in sterner things than the 
bleating of his toy -lamb and the antics of an ex- 
ceedingly woolly puppy — lamentably oblivious of all 
the rules of Court etiquette — which was one of his 
most precious possessions. The time came when he no 
longer curled himself up in the arms of his nurse like a 
frozen robin during the half-hour or so of his enforced 
airings in the snowy desolation of a bitter Berlin winter, 
but marched boldly forth with a most amusing imita- 
tion of the guard's "goose-step," or tried to keep up with 
his doting grandfather, his small, golden head barely 
reaching that handsome giant's knee. 

A giant indeed! A kindly, handsome giant, with fine, 
regular features and a hearty, open-air complexion. A 
genial -tempered, clean-minded giant, who did not de- 
vour little children, but adored them — especially this 
one — and who knew to perfection the difficult art 
of putting himself " a la portee" of his little compan- 
ion. 

During those delightful walks the boy would raise his 
eyes, aglow with an admiring smile, to the grand, im- 
perial figure towering above him, while he, the charming 
giant, so fond of babies and of flowers, smiled too in a 
tender, proud sort of a way, and pointed out to his little 

IS 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

companion all that seemed of a nature to attract his 
childish fancy. 

Nothing, however, pleased him so completely as 
when the huge sentries on guard at the palace gates 
presented arms to him, for he was already a passionate 
enthusiast about things military. Such inclinations are 
bred in the bone, and there is no getting rid of them. 
Anybody wearing a uniform appeared to the tiny Prince 
as if surrounded by a nimbus of gold-dust and pearl- 
dust, and he would throw back his shoulders, stiffen 
his supple limbs, and achieve a very commendable 
counterfeit of the trooper's manner whenever he walked 
out with his highly amused grandfather. 

Soon many dim things were to become rather violent- 
ly and painfully clear to the Royal Boy, many others 
were to entirely change their aspect and adjust them- 
selves in new combinations, many more that had seemed 
pleasant and enticing were to assume a rather alarming 
significance and importance, and would shake him with 
tumultuous thoughts and feelings, but of soldiering he 
never got tired or disillusioned, which was a mercy, 
since to an exuberant, expansive, warm, sunny nature 
like his there were too many threatening shadows in 
that grim, glum. Spartan process which is called the 
training of a Hohenzollern, not to make an occasional 
sun-ray desirable. 

Soon, too, the baby-heart was destined to swell in turn 
with surprise, grief, resentment, despair, pride, and hope, 
but his fervent affection for the army never for an in- 
stant swerved from the height it had attained at a 
bound as soon as he could walk. " De tous temps'' this 
feeling has been even more than mere affection, for 
there was something of himself in it, something poig- 
nantly, intimately personal, and it is still so to-day. 

To receive military honors, to have the sentinels pre- 

i6 




PORTRAIT AXIJ AUTOGRAPH OF PRIXCK WILLIAM AT THE 
TIME OF HIS ENROLMENT IN THE ARMY 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

sent arms to him, was, as I have already stated, one of 
his keenest and earhest joys, and with a view of hast- 
ening that proud sensation the child on more than one 
occasion escaped from his nursery, even before his toi- 
let was completed, to run down the palace steps and 
confront the sentries at their post with a smile seeming- 
ly all innocence, but possessing an undergleam of chal- 
lenge in its quality. 

Fixedly, intently he would look at them for a moment, 
then all at once the dimples about his rosebud mouth 
would narrow, and a ringing little laugh cleave the fresh 
morning air, as, having received the due of a Hohen- 
zollem Prince, the mischievous rogue scampered up- 
stairs to encounter the ominous frowns of his dismayed 
attendants. 

It must have been difficult to be severe with a little 
creature whose eyes darkened so pathetically and wist- 
fully when he was scolded, but nurses and governesses 
are proverbially cross-grained, and the melting eyes dep- 
recating censure, and beseeching indulgence, were pow- 
erless at last to avert a grim catastrophe. 

His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince, was informed 
of his son and heir's delinquencies, and upon the very 
next occasion when the embryo general, profiting by a 
momentary relaxation of surveillance, stole away like 
a thief in the night, and in further emulation of those 
gentry, shoeless, to go in quest of the honors due his 
rank, an ignominious disappointment became his por- 
tion. 

It was a wondrous spring morning; a shower had fallen 
during the night and the air was alive with the hum- 
ming of bees, the bold zigzags of swooping butterflies, 
and the almost imperceptible tinkle of crystalline drops 
falling from the glittering boughs into the fragrant bowls 
of the flowers beneath them, while all around were 

17 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

wafted secret and delicious essences distilled by the 
clean, new earth and the green things growing in it. 

The two sentinels at their post looked like any other 
heavy bodies, slow and circumspect and awe-inspiring, 
as they rhythmically paced up and down, but contrary 
to time-honored usages they held their course imper- 
turbably and took no notice whatsoever of the trem- 
ulous little white figure standing above them. 

The Baby Prince stared for a matter of some seconds, 
his level, fair brows knitted together, his lips parted, 
and many overpowering emotions concentrated in the 
spasmodic clinching and unclinching of the tiny hand 
which had been half raised in readiness for the return 
salute. 

The great blue eyes flickered anxiously, the rhythmi- 
cal beating of the lids heroically keeping back rising 
tears, and one adept in deciphering such signs might 
have read three or four separate meanings there — 
boundless amazement, a sort of vague terror, a pro- 
found humiliation, an absolute incapability of com- 
prehending why a noble Prince of the Reigning House 
should be thus publicly insulted, and last, but not least, 
an overwhelming sorrow. 

Poor little shoeless Prince, the lesson was almost too 
hard to bear! Violently, with a sort of catch in his 
throat, he turned, and, his cheeks the color of flame, 
his blue eyes flashing, he fled, racing up the broad, low 
steps and the wide corridors with the rapidity of a train 
of burning powder, his curls flying behind him, and his 
tiny stockinged feet never slackening their extraordinary 
speed until with a last agonized bound he flung himself 
straight into his father's arms. 

"I am disgraced!" he gasped; "the sentries refused to 
salute me! They would not even look at me! Oh! 
oh! oh!" he concluded in three separate piteous notes 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

of anguish, giving away at last to a perfect storm of 
despairing sobs. 

Gently but very firmly the Crown Prince unclasped 
the arms cast convulsively about his neck, and, looking 
keenly at the weeping child, asked with well -assumed 
severity : 

"Are you dressed in a fashion to exact respect and 
recognition, my son?" 

Incapable of mastering his voice sufficiently to an- 
swer, the culprit nodded his head deprecatingly — he 
just then looked upon life, no doubt, as upon a thing 
which had beguiled him with false promises, wronged 
and defrauded him sorely. 

"No sentinel," continued the Crown Prince oracu- 
larly, "is permitted to render the honors to a Prince 
who is not dressed from head to foot" — here he glanced 
significantly at the little pale -blue socks now quite 
covered with dust — "as prescribed by the regulations. 
Go and finish your toilet, and do not leave your apart- 
ments again in so unseemly a fashion!" 

During this discourse the boy's sobs had ceased; his 
soft eyes still swimming with enormous tears had wan- 
dered to the window — the tall window with its view of 
the " Courd'Honneitr," in front of which the gigantic sen- 
tries paced up and down so majestically; then slowly 
he turned them once more upon his father. They were 
immensely serious, intensely concerned, and in their 
farthest recesses still lurked the shame which had over- 
come him, as, heaving a tremulous sigh, and without 
noticing that there was a sort of grave relenting in the 
looks now bent upon him, he turned on his silk-shod 
heels with admirable military precision and moved 
towards the door without attempting to excuse his mis- 
demeanor, but evidently bent on immediate obedience 
as a token of repentance. 

19 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Ah! poor little Embryo Emperor! He must have had 
a sense of having stepped out of a world that he knew 
by heart, and which had hitherto been very pleasant, 
into a stuffy, threadbare region from which the gilt had 
been ruthlessly rubbed off, and which from minute to 
minute would open up new perspectives, bring to pass 
novel and painful surprises. 

Indeed, from that very day his life seemed to grow 
passing strange and intricate, and knotted about him 
like the threads of a spider's web that a bad fairy has 
mischievously entangled around a rosebud, for he had 
entered upon that solemn and portentous period when 
the training of a Hohenzollern Prince begins, and which, 
ever since the time when Frederick the Great had his 
education beaten into him by no gentle hands, has been 
Spartan enough to outdo Sparta itself in its palmiest 
days. 

Fortunately the little Prince was the worthy de- 
scendant of a valiant race, and at the same time a true 
child of that Germany where discipline is a deep-rooted 
principle. His love of all things military helped him, 
too, because he saw all the rest in relation to them, and 
translated everything in terms befitting a soldier. The 
whole universe, indeed, was peopled for him with march- 
ing armies, and when he walked in the palace gardens 
I doubt not that he caught glimpses of the god Mars 
striding through the trees, and heard vaguely the sound 
of trumpets and of clarions pulsating through the air. 

In many ways, however, the child was becoming too 
serious, he used his mind too much, and, although his 
primordial delicacy had given way to a mere frail lithe- 
ness, indicating no real physical weakness, yet he gave 
the impression of being made of too fine and dainty a 
clay to be thus early subjected to so much mental and 
physical exercise. He was, nevertheless, by no man- 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

ner of means deficient in the instincts of childhood, and 
enjoyed a game of play as well as any boy of his tender 
age, but even these periods of recreation he managed 
to turn into very visions of heroic romance brought to 
life, in spite of his possessing a very solid and well-bal- 
anced little head-piece. 

It was a very amusing sight to watch the little lad of 
six being put through his paces by tall D rill-Sergeant 
Klee, with all the " raidcur" and precision that estimable 
martinet would have used towards an ordinary recruit. 
Pink with the quick rubbing after his cold tub, his fair 
locks smoothly brushed, Prince Willy regarded his 
imposing instructor with absorbing attention, and 
imitated his every gesture in a magnificently vivid 
fashion. 

A difficulty stoically encountered is a difficulty al- 
ready half vanquished, and truly this child looked like 
one who would not easily accept defeat, for within him 
the blood coursed swiftly and the spirit burned alertly 
and vigorously. He was naturally at times wayward 
and provoking, as all children are prone to be, but he 
was always generous and loyal like those in whom there 
is race as well as nerve and true temperament. 

A couple of years later Captain von Schrotter, of the 
Guard Artillery, was appointed as military tutor to him 
and to his brother Henry, the future "Sailor Prince," 
who was now old enough to be his inseparable com- 
panion. 

From henceforth their joint studies became a serious 
matter indeed, although the younger Prince could not 
easily be made to take a gloomy view of anything, for 
he was one of those rare people who find life a joy, and 
most fellow-beings a cause of contentment and satis- 
faction, his cheerfulness and gayety shining like an in- 
ward sun, by no means subject to the dire changes from 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

fair to foul weather which mark our earthly pilgrim- 
age. He was the right sort, was Prince Henry, and the 
passage of years has not succeeded in altering him in 
that respect. 

Up with the larks in summer, when the wonderful 
morning air was still keen and light and virginal, the two 
Royal boys were in the habit of strolling for an hour at 
random in the park, their thoughts as sparkling as the 
awakening world, as brisk and cheery as their own im- 
mediate environments. 

Their favorite resort was the " Jungfcrnsee" at Pots- 
dam, and at that early hour, when the sun had not yet 
dried the millions of liquid gems sparkling on bush and 
grass, they would canoe, playing at Red Indians — one of 
Prince William's dearest games — lying in wait for each 
other with long spears made of bamboo, or gently beat- 
ing the water with the fiat of their paddles, as a signal 
to the imaginary braves ambushed behind a screen of 
ferns, or stooping with paddles poised hearkening to the 
stealthy approach of hostile tribes quite as imaginary. 
At other times they would slip out of their canoes, 
and, boarding the miniature frigate "Royal Luise" — a 
twenty -ton cutter presented in 1832 to Frederick Will- 
iam III. by King George IV. of England, which to this 
day is the first training-ship of every Hohenzollern 
Princelet — and, standing upon her almond-white deck 
above the runes of flame written by the sun on the trans- 
lucent surface of the lake, they would arouse all the 
neighboring echoes by firing her small cannons, the ordi- 
nary thunderous charge of lead being replaced by huge 
horse-chestnuts collected throughout the autumn for 
that purpose. 

Prmce William, the bravest of small figures, in his 
trim blue-and-white sailor suit, with the tiny anchors 
embroidered on his wide collar gleaming brightly, was, 




ON THE JUNGFERNSEE THE FOUNDER OF GERMANY S 

NAVAL POWER 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

of course, captain of the " Royal Ltiise," and a very ex- 
cellent commanding officer he made. 

This was a sweet, happy time, when the two lads, in 
extravagantly high spirits, laughed over the most in- 
different trivialities, their absolute, if but momentary, 
freedom being the cause for a swift mounting of their 
spiritual barometers. 

The beauty of the morning sun, the crisp chill of the 
lake water in which they loved to dip their hands, the 
solemn and splendid solitude of the deserted gardens 
and lawns, and, above all, the calm sheet of blue be- 
neath them mirroring the boundless turquoise vault 
overhead, made them feel as blithe and as happy as 
the goldfinches and robins vigorously ducking, flutter- 
ing, and preening their soft plumage amid jets of pris- 
matic spray where they bathed in little rock-formed 
pools, a hundred yards or so away from them on the 
banks of the " Jungfernsee." 

After such exploits the thoughts of those two little 
Princes were disposed to go wandering, and when they 
entered their joint school-room, they were apt to give but 
a veiled and fugitive attention to the dry-as-dust mat- 
ters upon which they were rather tersely bidden to 
bend their whole minds. We have all " been there be- 
fore"! But that is where the superior forcefulness of 
that famous Hohenzollern training came in, for all laxity 
was grimly excluded from its make-up, whatever the 
cause thereof might be. 

It was hard, to be sure, when a great rutilant sun was 
swung high in heaven, when no leaf trembled on the 
green trees, and when the songs of thousands of birds 
bubbled liquidly in through the open windows, to set- 
tle down to work, but so it had to be, and so it was. 

Heavily frowning, and with characteristic determina- 
tion, the future Monarch would wrestle uncomplaining- 

33 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

ly with unattractive figures, with difficult problems, 
and with abstruse questions that continually tripped 
and threw him, although his instructors, distinguished 
men one and all, made a point of putting these things 
to him with great lucidity and patience. 

At length, at the beginning of one particularly ink- 
stained and arithmetical month, there appeared upon 
the scene the man whose influence was to be all-impor- 
tant upon the younger years of William II. I have in 
saying this named Dr. Hinzpeter. 

In appearance the above-named pedagogue was not 
particularly prepossessing; tall and spare, with a mouth 
which gave the impression of secrecy and tightness, and 
eyes of a singular vagueness of expression, yet his man- 
ners were those of a man reserved but competent, and 
it was an unutterable relief to the Prince's parents to 
confide him to such adequate hands. 

It was during a visit which the Crown Prince and 
Crown Princess made to their intimate friends, Count 
Goertz, President of the Hessian House of Lords, and 
to his Countess (nee Princess von Sayn- Wittgenstein), 
at their beautiful country - seat of Schlitz, in Hesse, 
that they first met the Professor, who had for a num- 
ber of years been tutor to the Count's own son, and who 
was destined to become in a great many respects the 
German counterpart of M. Pobiedonotzow, the illus- 
trious mentor of Czar Alexander II. of Russia. 

His treatment of Prince William was shrewd and 
prompt, for, judging rapidly and correctly, he saw that 
any undue severity would not answer with the fiery nat- 
ure he had to deal with, and, although sorely handi- 
capped by the peremptory instructions given to him to 
the effect that his young charge's education would have 
to be absolutely terminated at eighteen, and that at 
that period he must have become, at whatever cost, the 

24 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

most accomplished and the most learned personage in 
Germany — a modest demand, one must confess — he 
made a brilliant success of the heavy task imposed upon 
him, and his " maniere de faire" has been certainly 
more than justified by its results. 

It may be said of Dr. Hinzpeter that, oddly enough, 
he had then many friends and no enemies ; to his credit 
be it noted, also, that he was too frank by nature to be 
a toady, and that his opinions were generally expressed, 
when he found it worth his while to express them at 
all — which was rare — in an absolutely fearless and even 
bluff manner. Indeed, when once interested in a sub- 
ject he was apt to become extraordinarily enthusiastic 
and eloquent, to the point almost of downright violence, 
which peculiarity was an overwhelming surprise to 
those who knew him only as a quiet, retiring, shy, and 
absent-minded pedagogue, sunk to the very eyebrows 
in science. 

One may add that age has brought no chill to his 
blood, no dulling of those capacities so often wrongly 
attributed to youth alone. His rusty, professorial 
black still covers the heart of a boy, the hot brain of a 
youthful enthusiast burns yet beneath his silvering hair, 
and he follows his erstwhile pupil with an approving 
eye, although he has long ceased to be his Imperial 
Master's political adviser, and contents himself with 
being the sincerest of his friends and well-wishers. 

But to return to the time when he first assumed his 
role as tutor. 

Immediately, and almost without giving himself a 
chance to breathe, he became the comrade of his Royal 
charges in the full acceptation of the word. He entered 
into the spirit of their games, and in play-hours accept- 
ed their various incarnations, whether they represented 
Red Indians, Crusaders armed with wooden sabres, or 

25 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Admirals with paper hats, as most solemnly real, and 
from that very moment Prince William began to ex- 
pand. 

This change was the result of no violent revulsion, but 
of the kindly impulse given to his whole training by 
the wise Westphalian Doctor, which caused him to 
thrive with marvellous alacrity, both mentally and 
physically. Dr. Hinzpeter had, it cannot be denied, 
the gift of creating a pleasing and soothing atmosphere 
about his impressionable pupil, who felt that he was ap- 
preciated and taken seriously, and he enjoyed this feel- 
ing exceedingly, for even those who most love excite- 
ment and stimulus crave for the occasional unbending 
of the bow, when the soul within them obtains in- 
telligent companionship and a due amount of praise. 



CHAPTER II 

Time flew on and the blunder which cost France the 
loss of her pre-eminence as a leading nation was per- 
petrated. Months succeeded months, and the little 
Princes looked forward to nothing with greater eager- 
ness than to the hurried letters written home by their 
grandfather and their father, from beside the bivouac- 
fires, their young hearts beating high with pride and 
delight at the news of victory after victory, and their 
thoughts one vast regret that they had not yet attained 
the age to wear a real sword and do a man's work. 

These months of suspense did much to ripen Prince 
William and to still further develop his passion for sol- 
diering. 

Winter settled down upon Germany with its cold, 
grim silence, and the twelve year-old boy's impatience 
became intolerable. Greedily he read the despatches, 
and could hardly be induced to absent himself even for 
an hour when news was expected from the seat of war. 
That of the capitulation of Paris reached him as he and 
his brother, weary of this perpetual watching, had gone 
to skate on the palace lake in the steel-and-silver still- 
ness of a windless winter afternoon. Everything glim- 
mered as with a soft, internal lustre, each spray and 
sprig on the ice-bound shore was turned into a crystal 
spear menacing the rack of torn, snow-laden clouds 
overhead. The sport was excellent, the ice perfect, and 
the children little heeded the menace of the heavens, 
for hither and thither they flitted, skimming like swal- 

3 27 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

lows on the gleaming surface, where the sharp blades 
of their skates left long, curved scratches of a matt 
whiteness. 

Suddenly they noticed that the faithful Dr. Hinz- 
peter was beckoning to them from the shore, and they 
rushed headlong towards him in such breathless haste 
that for a few seconds they could not even ask their 
tutor what he had called them for. 

As soon as he grasped the momentous news, how- 
ever. Prince William began to dance with joy. 

"Oh, how glorious!" he exclaimed; "how very, very 
happy I am!" He broke off short, for a hand was laid 
on his arm, and Dr. Hinzpeter stood tall and dark 
over him. 

"They have fought bravely and endured heroically 
in vain, those poor people who have just capitulated," 
he said, gently; "our joy is their despair — do not forget 
that, Prince William." 

The boy made no answer, and lowered his eyes, in 
which swift tears had risen. This was the first time 
that the other side of the question had struck him, and 
his warm heart responded at once to the appeal. To 
triumph over a fallen foe seemed suddenly mean and 
contemptible to him, and very soberly did he walk back 
to the palace, his bonny face unusually grave as he 
thought of the women and children, the sick and wound- 
ed who for nearly seven months had suffered a slow 
agony within the walls of the besieged capital of France. 

All his vividly awakened sympathies could not, how- 
ever, dampen the delight he experienced when his 
grandfather, at the head of Germany's victorious troops, 
re-entered Berlin, and when he. Prince WilHam, was 
allowed to join the dazzling procession of Sovereign 
Princes, Great Captains, and Crown Vassals forming the 
train of the recently proclaimed Emperor. 

28 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Mounted on a little, speckled pony, the Royal lad rode 
along, feeling himself indeed a Prince and a soldier. On 
his tenth birthday he had, like all other scions of the 
House of Hohenzollern, been appointed Lieutenant of 
the First Regiment of Foot -Guards; he had also re- 
ceived the order of the Black Eagle, and on that ex- 
quisitely fresh and brilliant morning of the i6th of June, 
187 1, as he passed beneath the flower-laden " Branden- 
biirger-Thor " on his quaint little steed, between his father 
and the Grand Duke of Baden, his whole being thrilled 
with unutterable pride and joy. 

Many a kind and loving eye was bent in approval upon 
the gallant little figure, many a strong, manly voice was 
raised to greet him quite particularly with a resounding 
"Hoch!" and many a stalwart heart heaved with loyal 
emotion as this small grandson of a conquering grand- 
father passed, his rounded cheeks glowing, his blue eyes 
lighted up, and his head held erect with intense grati- 
fication. 

High-spirited and impetuous, overeager and thought- 
less at times, still Prince William chose the good and 
rejected the evil almost instinctively; he began also to 
take a deeper interest in his studies, and, being remark- 
ably gifted, he went apace with great rapidity, aston- 
ishing his professors by the thoroughness of his acquire- 
ment, and the clear and concise manner in which he 
took hold of a proposition and carried it promptly to 
its logical end. 

The lad was desperately in earnest about everything 
he undertook, and a careful observer could notice that 
however quiet and precise he might try to appear, there 
was an almost feverishly intense ardor always quiver- 
ing beneath the surface ; but he looked the world square- 
ly and pluckily in the face, and took his fences straight 
whatever happened. 

29 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

It is difficult to say whether Prince WilHam was glad 
or sorry when he was suddenly told that, in contradiction 
to all the Hohenzollern traditions, he, the Heir Presump- 
tive, was on the point of being sent to a public school. 
The excessively military twist given to his education 
had certainly prepared him for passive obedience, but 
he knew without the possibility of a doubt that his be- 
loved grandfather was opposed to the project, that 
Prince Bismarck — who to him was the beau-ideal of a 
soldier — also vehemently combated it, and therefore it 
may be safely taken for granted that pleasure was not 
paramount among the young fellow's sensations at the 
time. 

The whole affair caused no end of disturbance at 
Court, and a marked and most ungenial aloofness was 
observed to exist for- a while between the opposite 
factions; but the next best thing to winning is to know 
when you are beaten, and Emperor William I., although 
vexed with himself for being circumvented and for final- 
ly yielding, yet never allowed his darling grandson, the 
pride of his heart, to quite gauge the extent of the 
pain inflicted upon himself by that new departure in 
Hohenzollern training. This prudence, however, did 
not prevent the Prince's heart from being momentarily 
hardened and chilled, for he adored his kindly grand- 
father and abhorred the thought of his having been 
overruled, as also that of being permanently separated 
from him. 

The process of thought of a boy of fourteen is some- 
what curious, not to say obscure, and the results dis- 
concerting. At that age, too, one is not diplomatic, es- 
pecially when for the first time in one's life one becomes 
conscious of a rift in the lute of family aflfections, and 
thus did a, comparatively speaking, unimportant in- 
cident cause the birth of a state of things which 

30 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

later on was to bear much fruit that was bitter exceed- 
ingly. 

It must be confessed that being given the eminently 
feudal spirit which in those days still reigned in Ger- 
many, the task of the teachers at the Cassel Gymnasium, 
which had been selected for the Royal lad's debut at 
school, was, at " prima-vista,'" a difficult one; but, as a 
matter of fact, it turned out to be the easiest in the 
world, thanks to Prince William and Prince Henry them- 
selves, and thanks also to the tact and wisdom dis- 
played by Dr. Hinzpeter during the three years which 
they passed together at Cassel. 

It had been made clear to the tutor that his two 
pupils were on no account to be treated otherwise than 
in the most democratic fashion, and that in no way 
was he to allow them to be placed on a higher plane 
than their school-mates. Furthermore, they were not 
to be addressed as " Royal Highnesses," and, in one word, 
must be forced to win any distinction they might covet, 
but were not to profit by those which were theirs by 
birth. 

In itself the plan was undoubtedly a good one, for 
so long as they were to mix with the inmates of a public 
institution they necessarily in fairness and justice could 
not make use of any birth privileges, but it is not sur- 
prising that those who knew the lay of the land, and 
especially the sensitive, nervous, and diffident nature of 
Prince William, should have dreaded, and with good 
reason, such an ordeal for him. 

The Royal lad himself arrived at Cassel in a ferment 
of expectation, checkered with a multitude of varying 
hopes and fears. The mere exhilaration of the unknown 
boiled up in effervescence within him at one moment, 
while again an anguish of self-distrust shook him im- 
mediately afterwards. 

31 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

What if, after all, he should prove to be a failure ? At 
the thought little cold waves stole down his back, for 
he could not help picturing to himself the awful shame 
of it! These vague forebodings and the mordancy of 
such anticipations were wellnigh unbearable to the 
proud, diffident child, and Dr. Hinzpeter, watching him 
keenly, had to bring out all his artillery of sagacious 
fascination to disperse the brooding, the dull, vague 
aches of regret, and the dreary premonitions obscuring 
the mind he was there to guide and to train. 

He hoped, of course, that the actuality would be far 
less unpleasant than the anticipation, and that when 
Prince William found himself really face to face with the 
situation he dreaded, his fears would disappear as com- 
pletely as a blink of summer lightning; yet these hopes 
might be utterly at fault, and the Doctor was therefore 
nearly as anxious as his young charge when they reached 
their destination. What would come to pass there in 
the next few months he strenuously forbore to conject- 
ure, for it was his business to keep his brain cool and 
collected and to avoid all thoughts which might bias 
him one way or the other. 

In the meanwhile Prince William had made an obvious 
call on his resolution, conquered all signs of his terrible 
uneasiness, and faced the music like the brave little man 
he was. 

It seems a generally accepted theory that William II. 
considers himself to be the most important personage in 
creation, a being around whom revolve the world and 
the stars and all space — at least so we read in the vitri- 
olic comments of the public press of every shade and 
description. It is to be regretted that it should have 
occurred to so few people that the Kaiser's nature is 
too subtle and complicated a one to be judged by sur- 
face appearances or by the impulses of a moment. 

32 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Even in those days at Cassel there was a curious sort 
of eagerness in Prince WilHam's manner, a picturesque- 
ness in his way of doing things, a deep sense of the 
pictorial aspect of existence which was somewhat mis- 
leading, as were also his at times quick, slightly heed- 
less fashion of speech, his rather high timbre of voice, 
his extreme impressionability, his reckless and laughing 
disregard of all danger. 

All this did not then, and does not now, prevent him 
from feeling things very strongly and being very far 
from a self-satisfied, bumptious person. Then, as now, 
too, he was one of those fortunate wayfarers who see 
their road clearly before them, and for whom the bar- 
riers of duty and honor which stand on both sides of 
the path have no gap in them at any time. 

The Gymnasium at Cassel was a plain, square, stone 
building, without any attempt at ornamentation, and 
the inside was quite as grim and forbidding as the out- 
side. The town itself was dull exceedingly, but Prince 
William soon made the discovery that places and sit- 
uations are never so excellent or so dreadful as we 
represent them to ourselves before we actually reach 
them. 

A new life had begun for him, a quiet, studious, peace- 
ful life, and yet not devoid of that disquietude which is 
the inseparable companion of all ambition. So great 
was this ambition that at first, in his ardor to achieve 
success, mere outward things became of no account. 
His clothes, which were mostly shabby — in accordance 
with a systematized scheme for the repression of vanity 
and extravagance and the encouragement of a "whole- 
some" humility — troubled him not in the least; the 
necessity of stuffing coal into the stove when his turn 
came round to fulfil this homely duty, devolving on 
each of the bo3''s in regular rotation, vexed him still less; 

23 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

nor did the familiarity of his fellow-students ever ex- 
cite his indignation. 

During the cold months, he, together with Prince 
Henry and Dr. Hinzpeter, lived in the plain, gloomy 
old " Fiirstenschloss," a place as unamiable to those who 
gaze at it from without as it is chilling and deplorably 
depressing to those who have the misfortune to enter 
its inhospitable portals. 

It was furnished in a heavy and ungracious style, and 
what meagre effort at embellishment it boasted gave 
but an additional frown to the " tout-ensemble " of this 
once, no doubt, very brilliant "Electoral-Residenz." Such 
an abode had nothing in its desolation and absence of any 
but a tarnished and threadbare grandeur, to cheer the 
heart or raise the spirit, and at the age Prince William 
was then one cannot be absolutely content with the 
mere barren sense of duty done, much as one may desire 
to be so. It cannot, therefore, be doubted that he at 
times must have felt the void and wearisomeness of this 
sad place, especially when the searching winds of the 
harsh German autumn began to beat at the lofty, iron- 
barred casements of his bare, uncomfortable rooms. 

In the early spring, fortunately, matters assumed a 
more cheerful aspect, for as soon as all traces of snow 
and of frost had disappeared, the two brothers and their 
faithful tutor quickly left the little capital of Hesse- 
Cassel, to take up their quarters at Schloss Wilhelms- 
hohe, the German Versailles, as it is called. 

The castle stands at the foot of a broad ridge of hills, 
peopled with companies of beautiful trees; all around 
run level lawns fringed with fragrant flower-beds of great 
beauty; and, where the park joins the gardens, hedges 
of clipped bay shed a healthy perfume upon broad turf 
seats, where Napoleon III., during his captivity there, 
used occasionally to sit, casting a melancholy look upon 

34 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

the great fountains, which in the days when Jerome Bona- 
parte was King of Westphaha were the dehght of that 
impromptu Monarch's heart. 

Prince WilHam's passion for flowers was gratified by 
the loveliness of those endless spaces, where the grass was 
thick with the brilliant gold of daffodils, the straw tints 
of the primrose, the rich purples and delicate mauves 
of violets and anemones, and the snowy whiteness of 
narcissi, blossoming in their millions beneath the clus- 
tering boughs of Japanese cherry, pink acacia, labur- 
num and lilac, that stretched their foam of delicate col- 
oring all over the park. 

He and Prince Henry stepped there into the sparkling 
coolness of the young day, just as they had done at 
Potsdam, the sunshine from without meeting the sun- 
shine in their souls, gladly and joyously, with a thrill of 
welcome. But like a monstrous spider spinning its 
criss-cross threads, the inexorable " Hohenzollern train- 
ing" tirelessly thickened its web around them, drawing 
it closer and closer still, although during these summer 
months Prince William hardly thought of the morrow, 
and made the most of this " etape " before buckling on 
his knapsack for good and aye. 

In the autumn, when the weather became dull and 
gray, when silvery fogs began to rise from the lake at 
Wilhelmshohe and trail their shimmering folds over 
the little river Fulda, the Princely Household moved 
back under the spreading branches of the secular limes 
bordering the superb avenue, three miles long, which 
leads to Cassel and the winter-quarters at the Electoral 
" Fiirsteripalast." 

Not without regret did the Prince abandon the leafless 
woods in their poetic livery of golden bronze and soft, 
silky gray, the bare fields sliivering at the near promise 
of snow, for, like all true lovers of the country, those 

35 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

clean-souled ones who prefer the gentle creaking of 
moving scythes, the ripple of running water, and the 
singing of birds to the rattle and the murky smoke of 
crowded streets, he understood and enjoyed nature in 
all its moods, even the grimmest, when frost and ice grip 
the world in a relentless vise. 

It would be difficult to give an accurate conception 
of the kindness, frankness, and friendliness which Prince 
William displayed throughout his sojourn at Cassel 
towards his school-fellows. He certainly could not be 
accused of superciliousness or arrogance, for he treated 
them all, whatever their birth or social status, with a 
gentle consideration quite above praise, making no dis- 
tinction between them, and being only too ready to 
afford them any pleasures from which their lack of 
money or position debarred them, as, for instance, the 
opportunity of spending the hot summer afternoons un- 
der the cool shade of the park at Wilhelmshohe, etc., etc. 

The result of all this is that to this day he is looked 
upon by his former comrades as a friend far rather than 
as a Sovereign; and not long ago a worthy apothecary, 
who had been for two years at school with him, wrote 
a very unsophisticated letter to the omnipotent Em- 
peror of "All the Germanics, " requesting his permission 
to open a drug-store at Berlin. Quite simply, too, and 
without giving a sign of astonishment at this, a rather 
unusual departure from all etiquette. His Majesty caused 
a letter to be written to the chemist in question, explain- 
ing that he had not the least power in such a matter, 
a fact which he truly regretted, but that he was only too 
glad to promise his old " Kainarad" his hearty patron- 
age should the plan be put into execution at any time. 

Summer or winter. Prince William worked hard, that 
is certain! Often his young face was pale and drawn, 
for he had begun in the second term of his sojourn at 

36 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Cassel to make too free a use of the midnight oil; his 
rooms were hned with well-thumbed volumes of no en- 
gaging appearance, his tables strewn with papers black- 
ened by mathematical figures, equations, and algebra. 
It would be impossible to live more simply than he did ; 
indeed, a "Maas" of lager-beer and a couple of "Pret- 
zels'' were quite a dissipation for the boys when Dr. 
Hinzpeter walked with them in the outskirts of the little 
town, and they stopped for these homely refreshments 
at some tree-bowered road-side inn, above which the 
wind stirred the bare branches of the chestnuts and 
lindens. 

Dr. Hinzpeter saw with great sorrow the moment of 
separation approach. This dread eventuality was daily 
growing nearer, for at eighteen Prince William would 
be declared of age, undergo the final investiture of the 
order of the Black Eagle, and then enter the University 
of Bonn, there to terminate his education. 

The affections of the warm-hearted tutor were centred 
upon the two Royal boys, who for so long had been 
his hourly care, and to be no miore their constant com- 
panion seemed to him a calamity beyond compare. 

Prince William, who was the very apple of his eye, 
received many admonitions during the last weeks at 
Cassel. 

"You are the heir to a glorious Throne," he would re- 
peat again and again, "to great traditions of honor and 
valiance, to great duties and obligations; so you have 
no right ever to think of yourself. You owe it to your 
future people and to Germany to bestir yourself and 
to do the uttermost in your power for the good of the 
"Vaterland." A King is a custodian, a trustee, and he 
must bear his heavy burden nobly in the sight of the 
whole world. That is your mission. Prince William, 
that is the work you are born to do, and I know that you 

37 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

will do it, that you will take your life and your mission 
seriously." 

The Doctor's vague eyes would light up and glow with 
enthusiasm when he spoke thus, and his eloquence had 
a very convincing and conclusive note in it; again and 
again he would gaze at his beloved pupil, discovering 
his very soul to him. Positively, the poor man grew 
thin with speculating about what would come to pass 
when William came to his own, and when finally he 
had to bid him good-bye his throat was dry, his pulses 
pounded, his knees all but knocked together under him, 
and big, honest tears rolled down his cheeks without 
his even thinking of concealing them. 

On his leaving the Gymnasium a very special honor 
was done to Prince William, and one which filled him 
with the most genuine pride and satisfaction. It is a 
time-honored custom at the ''Lyceum Fredericanhim " 
of Cassel to grant to the most diligent, clever, and 
meritorious pupil the so-called " Richters-Medatlle" as 
an especial mark of distinction, and great was the 
Royal lad's surprise and gratification, when in the pres- 
ence of the assembled school the head-master conferred 
it upon him, " in recognition of his uniform and perse- 
vering diligence and of his excellent achievements." 

Turning as red as a cherry, the delighted Prince ex- 
claimed in his characteristic, open-hearted fashion: 

"You cannot imagine what pleasure the bestoAval of 
this medal gives me, and especially the thought that it 
is a distinction I have really earned for myself. It is, 
therefore, a reward I shall always highly prize, since I 
honestly did all I could to deserve it!" 

His appearance as he spoke was so genuine, his alert, 
luminous eyes sparkled with so deep a pleasure, that 
thunderous applause followed this little speech — an ab- 
solute ovation which, nicely appraised by experienced 

38 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

ears, denoted not the slightest bit of adulation for the 
Royal Prince, but a very " bona-fide " admiration, quite 
untinged with jealousy, for the school-mate thus pub- 
licly and justly recompensed. 

Suddenly transported from the inhospitable "Fiirsten- 
palast " of Cassel to his grandfather's Court, surrounded 
once more by the glamour and insidious satisfaction af- 
forded by stately rooms — rooms with mirror-like floors, 
sumptuously tapestried walls, precious furnishings, and 
countless art treasures, lighted up by priceless Venetian 
chandeliers, and always filled with the warm fragrance of 
exotics — the young Prince was at first a trifle bewildered. 

The gorgeousness of the great purple Throne he would 
one day occupy fascinated him; it caused him a little 
feeling of uneasiness, too — very similar to that which 
had made his first trip to Cassel so unpleasant. Would 
he be worthy of this magnificent inheritance, or would 
he be lacking in those heroic qualities he admired so 
much in his iron-handed ancestors ? The thought was 
so appalling that it was a relief to realize that two strong 
lives still stood between him and that momentous hour, 
but yet in his inner mind he was busy with this future, 
to prepare him for which the efforts of his entire " en- 
tourage" had been bent since his very birth. 

Ah, well! we can only be young once — more's the pity 
— and young people are allowed to be pertinaciously, 
if silently, inquisitive as regards Providence. Prince 
William was exceedingly so, but outwardly, as was his 
wont, he gave no sign of the qualms he so often endured, 
and had already then, in his ardent desire to conceal 
what he considered a weakness, succeeded in creating 
the impression that he possessed neither much warmth 
of feeling nor much ardor. "Et voila coinine on ecrit 
riiistoire!" when one permits one's self to be misled by 
appearances. 

39 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

The tone almost invariably adopted now by the Heir 
Presumptive was judiciously compounded of youthful 
alertness and German bluntness. Equipped therewith, 
and with a curious play of the eyebrows, which was also 
as assumed as it was nonchalant, he disarmed all in- 
vestigation into his private thoughts, hopes, and fears, 
this ingenuous device carrying him trippingly to the 
autumn of 1877, when he entered the University of Bonn. 
No! no! he was not really nonchalant, this indefatiga- 
ble, eager, enthusiastic boy of eighteen — not the least 
little bit so — but sociability and confidence were impos- 
sible to him just then, for he v/as brimming over with 
the kind of defiance common to all those of whom one 
expects too much at short notice. " Voila tout I" 

Attended by Major von Liebenau and Lieutenant von 
Jacobi, he started one fine autumn morning for the 
quaint little University town on the Rhine. 

The "Villa Frank," sleeping within the shadowy still- 
ness of a big garden laid out in geometrical parterres 
and smooth lawns, had been selected as his domicile; a 
garden, however, fanned by the breezes from the river 
and gilded by the sun to one's heart's content. The in- 
terior there was, again, excessively plain, comprising 
neat, rather bare rooms that showed no effort of any 
kind to relieve their bleakness. 

Soon, however, the equinoctial storms made havoc 
with the garden, the pretty, fragrant flowers lay su- 
pine, their dainty corollas beaten into the ground, the 
smooth lawns were littered with the gold of fallen leaves, 
and the pink snow of dismantled rose-petals, and all 
at once, somehow, one felt the change in nature which 
so closely resembles that of approaching death. 

The wild force of winter and its reckless fury arrived, 
and the smooth-flov/ing Rhine became at times a riot- 
ous race of headlong water, a grand, rushing volume, vio- 

40 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

lent and superb beyond description, striking in huge, 
feathery masses of interrupted turbulence wherever a 
rock raised its gray head or a promontory jutted out 
into the stream. 

Often the Prince, who regarded the vault of heaven, 
whatever its color might be, as the only proper roof 
for humanit}'', marched gayly through the pelting rain 
or the driving snow to take his constitutional along the 
river-bank — where, during the summer, he had loved to 
sketch — his lightness of step not in the least hampered 
by the splashing gravel or the slippery iciness under his 
feet, "a brisk walk, whatever the weather," being one 
of his pet maxims. 

The years he spent at the celebrated Rhenish Univer- 
sity were not, however, destined to prove either as be- 
neficent or as pleasing as the sojourn at Cassel. They 
were for him a complete transplantation into entirely 
new surroundings and conditions, for, instead of the 
easy and unaffected comradeship of mere boys, and the 
wise and genial companionship of Dr. Hinzpeter, not 
to mention the delightful and intimate intercourse which 
he had had with his brother, he now found himself 
thrown into the constant society of gay and festive 
"Jimkcrs," who, overjoyed to become intimate with 
their future Sovereign, and keeping a wary eye on the 
ultimate advantages to be derived therefrom, created 
around him an atmosphere of toadyism and adulation. 
' Moreover, one of the smartest corps of officers in the 
German army, the " Konigshnsaren," was then stationed 
at Bonn, and Prince William, whose military enthusiasm 
was as thorough as ever, spent a considerable portion of 
his time, booted and spurred and decked in all the glory 
of his lieutenant's uniform, with those dashing and hot- 
headed scions of the German aristocracy. 

The Hohenzollern training included, before the pres- 

41 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

ent era, one feature especially galling to a high-spirited, 
proud nature, and that was the inadequate and insuffi- 
cient allowance accorded to the young Princes of the 
reigning House. In Prince William's case this parsi- 
mony was redoubled and insisted upon with what one 
might really call ferocious exactitude, so much so, in- 
deed, that had it not been for the cleverness and exces- 
sive economy of Major von Liebenau, who had charge 
of his household during the sojourn at Bonn, it would 
have been impossible for him to have lived in a manner 
befitting his rank — even as a student-Prince. 

It does not seem to have entered anybody's head at 
Berlin then, that the young man could really suffer from 
such a state of affairs — Spartans, as a rule, always lacked 
imagination, particularly where others were concerned 
— but pinching and scraping are uncongenial to the 
young, or else they must have a special vocation for a 
narrow-minded and miserly existence, which inclination 
certainly was not to be laid at Prince Wihiam's door. 
It was, moreover, never willed by Providence that a 
youth of his complexion should pass the spring-time 
of his life in wretched cheese-paring plots and plans, 
thereby missing all which that spring-time had to offer 
that was sweet and pleasing. It is enough to envenom 
the heart and soul of any of God's creatures to be put 
in so false a position, and to make one churlish and 
sulky as well. It is therefore little short of marvel- 
lous that so unpleasant a result should not have been 
evoked in this instance, and yet more so that it should 
never have occurred to Prince William to make an ap- 
peal to his grandfather, who would undoubtedly have 
doubled or trebled his meagre allowance for the mere 
asking, and without breathing a word of it to any one. 
That, too, is very characteristic of Emperor William, 
who abhors anything not quite frank and above board. 

42 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Before long the dreamy, concentrated nature of the 
young Prince was in a measure wrested from its normal 
development by this plunge into the world. Indeed, 
the old state of affairs influenced him only in so far as 
that he kept himself still somewhat in reserve, and that 
at times he preserved a strict privacy of his own. 

He did not become lazy or self-contented, and his 
professors, among whom were Halschner, Loersch, and 
von Stintzing, spoke highly of his talents, application, 
and industry; but, although he refused to lead the silly, 
frivolous life of the ordinary run of rich students, yet 
for a boy of his age the satisfaction of almost complete 
emancipation, flavored with the pungent and penetrat- 
ing incense of flattery, had its dangers. 

Greatly to his credit be it therefore said, that his head 
was not turned by the suddenness of the change from the 
cool and soothing penumbra of his existence at Cassel 
to the warm, fragrant, adulatory atmosphere which sur- 
rounded him at Bonn ; but somehow it was not quite the 
same Prince William who now went in and out of the 
erstwhile so silent and peaceful " Villa Frank," amid the 
pounding of hoofs and the grinding of carriage-wheels, 
escorted by a veritable " cohue" of vivacious "Seig- 
neurs,'' who laughed, sang, and joked without cessa- 
tion; there was a difference, subtle, almost undetect- 
able, but of which the perverse detractors of Royalty 
and all that hangs thereto made excellent use, you may 
believe me. 

It was not in flesh and blood to remain quite un- 
moved by the tributes paid to him during these Univer- 
sity years, especially since that flesh and blood were 
virgin gold, unstamped as yet and un wrought by the 
cruel fingers of experience. 

Say what you will, it is flattery that generally wins 
the day, and when a youth of eighteen, who has hither- 
4 43 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

to been treated with great severity, finds out all at once 
that he cannot open his mouth without arousing thun- 
ders of ecstatic approval and admiration, that he can- 
not express an opinion without its being declared the 
most novel, original, transcendent, and altogether per- 
fect ever advanced, is it not natural that this youth 
should show some superciliousness in the tilt of his nose, 
a" soupgon" of self-assertion in the twirl of his dawning 
mustaches, and a faint tinge of masterfulness in the 
straightening of his shoulders? 

As a matter of fact. Prince WilHam's faculties were 
at that period often in a whirl when he pictured his fut- 
ure to himself. Imagination flew on the wings of his 
desire, and there that future stood before him in all its 
sumptuous splendor — strong, powerful, and glowing — 
and, as he dreamed, his eyes lightened, burned, his blood 
came and went in his cheeks, his lips parted as if to ex- 
press the inexpressible — the wild hunger and the wild 
triumph of his soul. But souls are apt to ache after 
such commotions, and presently the price had to be 
paid by a mood of desperate renunciation and discour- 
agement, of resentment against himself and all his 
apostles, followed in turn by a kind of exhaustion 
which made the already-mentioned detractors declare 
that the Prince was abnormally sulky. 

These conflicting emotions, so natural in a youth of 
William's temperament, were not understood during the 
visits which he paid to Berlin and Potsdam, where the 
alternate exuberance and depression of his spirit were 
alike regarded as subjects for condemnation, adminis- 
tered in a manner peculiarly galling to his feelings, with- 
out any allowance whatsoever being made for the 
mould of his character. 

The Emperor alone never varied in his boundless 
tenderness and leniency. The dear old man was not in 

44 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

the habit of chaining up his natural impulses, and his 
natural impulses all converged to idoHze his grandson, 
and to succumb to the enchantment of being first and 
foremost in his affections. 

What call had he to be Spartan and severe and a 
"troiible-fete" when his faith in the boy remained un- 
shaken by other people's scepticism and subtle reason- 
ing ? He only cared to dispel the clouds which repeated 
admonitions brought upon the smooth brow of his dar- 
ling. At all events, when he saw him with an unsmiling 
face, all the severe resolutions he might momentarily 
have been induced to make were checked, and the im- 
petus of his intent broken like a dry twig, since, for him, 
there was then nothing more pressing and urgent to do 
than to coax back the smile which suited those 5''0ung 
lips so well. 

Thus did the aged Monarch persevere in his half-humor- 
ous, wholly good-natured friendliness towards the world 
in general and his entire family in particular, beloved and 
honored by all, and fairly worshipped by his grandson. 

When, on the 2d of June, 1878, Nobihng shot at 
and very nearly killed Emperor William I., Prince 
William was completely prostrated by grief at first, 
his impressionable nature making him revolt with ter- 
rible anger against this the first great sorrow of his 
life. The days which followed the cowardly "attentat " 
upon the noble and kindly old man were for his grand- 
son indescribably wretched; he relt fagged-out as by some 
tremendous exertion, and I have it from an eye-witness 
that his haggard face and miserable eyes were pitiful 
to behold. Nor is this strange, for I remember what a 
pathetic impression the wounded Emperor created even 
upon me, when, as soon as he was able to be moved, he 
came to the Austrian baths of Teplitz-Schonau, to try 
and recover a little strength. 

45 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

To see the stalwart giant, now bent and tottering, 
leaning feebly on the arm of an aide-de-camp during 
his short little walks in the park, where the sun shone 
strong and clear, the birds flew merrily about their af- 
fairs, and the flowers breathed forth their perfumes, 
was a sight to hurt one deeply. 

All the world was as it had ever been; but, oh! the 
difference in him! And yet, although one's heart was 
full of unshed tears at so piteous a sight, when one 
watched his patient face, his unfailing smile, and heard 
the brave intonation of his voice, a strange feeling of 
exaltation took possession of one and made one's heart 
beat with admiration. 

He was really a man to renew one's faith in human 
nature, this old Emperor, so good and so simple, and so 
plucky — indeed, William the Great — who never uttered 
a single word of complaint, and in whose eyes so wonder- 
ful and clear a light shone. 

How well I remember him walking slowly, slowly 
backward and forward on the grass one fresh, bright 
morning, leaning upon the arm of the great Iron Chan- 
cellor, who had arrived the night before on a visit to 
him! The contrast between them was almost painful, 
so insolently healthy and strong did Bismarck appear 
beside his Imperial Master, who, with his head still band- 
aged, his arm in a sling, and wearing civilian clothes — 
in itself a most unusual and alarming thing with this 
warrior Monarch — clung to the support of his powerful 
old friend and counsellor. 

By - and - by they came and sat down on a wicker 
bench under an awning placed every morning beneath 
the trees of a side-allee for the patient's convenience. 
On a little table stood a carafe of water, some tumblers, 
and a sugar-bowl. Prince Bismarck poured some water 
into a tumbler, put in two lumps of sugar, stirred the 

46 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

mixture with the minute attention he accorded to all 
he did, and, when the sugar was completely dissolved, 
added a few drops of some medicine or tonic to it, from 
a " flacon," which he took from a case on the table, and 
handed the now rose-colored beverage to the Emperor, 
who drank it off in a series of little sips. 

I watched the whole performance from a secluded spot 
where I was in the habit of walking up and down every- 
day for an hour after my bath — for I also was there to 
recover from an injury, occasioned by a severe fall with 
my horse, which had left me distressingly lame. I had 
not the faintest idea that I was observed, and purposely 
kept at a distance, but, as was soon to be proved to me, 
my hopes were quite fallacious! 

The park at Teplitz-Schonau is a charmingly pretty 
place, a surprisingly jolly place, too, with clematis and 
jasmine climbing all over the queer little kiosks, where 
military music is played in the afternoon, and where 
wisteria twines about the trunks of the trees with af- 
fectionate persistency. 

Half an hour later, as I was walking home to my 
second breakfast, along the sunny lawns dotted with 
flower-beds and rustic benches, and pervaded by a 
delicious coolness, stillness, and fragrance, I suddenly 
came, at the turning of a shady path, face to face with 
the Emperor, accompanied now by one of his aides-de- 
camp. 

A smile of indulgent amusement appeared on his lips, 
and, as I courtesied as low as my stiff knee allowed, it 
merged into a genuine chuckle, the satisfied chuckle of 
a man whose tactics have succeeded beyond his hopes. 

Very much surprised, I looked at him with absolute 
bewilderment, for I could not understand why I thus 
aroused his hilarity, nor was I less astonished when he 
put forth his uninjured hand — disengaging it for that 

47 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

purpose from his stolid escort's arm — and deliberately 
pinched my ear. I was so young in those days that, in 
spite of " my great dignity as a married woman," the 
Emperor always treated me as a mere child. 

"I have caught you finely, madame!" he laughed. 
" So you deign to show yourself, now that Croquemitaine 
is gone! I saw you hiding an hour ago, a flitting white- 
ness amid the green bushes yonder, as if my estimable 
friend Bismarck was the Werewolf! Tell me why you 
gave yourself such superfluous pains, since we both saw 
you as plain as day?" 

I, too, could not help laughing now, and, catching the 
spirit of the dear old man's mood, I said, sedately; 

"With sentiments of the deepest regret I must re- 
spectfully decline to tell Your Majesty the reasons of 
my suspicious conduct, which now humiliate me be- 
yond measure when I recall them." 

"Oh, my dear child," objected he, " I know your rea- 
sons very well." He chuckled again. "You knew that 
you could not take it upon yourself to be graciously 
friendly, and as under the circumstances you did not 
wish to hurt my poor, well-meaning friend's feelings, and 
perhaps burden my own soul with a falsehood too — since 
I should have been forced to explain that this is your 
habitual manner — you went into hiding!" 

Now, ever since France has been a republic and has 
repudiated her title as Eldest Daughter of the Church, 
we Bretons hate being classed with the French, but the 
disaster of 1870-71 has left deep scars on French and 
Breton hearts alike, and, moreover, in those days my 
newly acquired Austrian nationality added but fuel to 
the flame of my very real resentment against Bismarck. 

A childish feeling, the common -sense people will say, 
and that is just exactly what it was — a childish feeling, 
born and bred of the mad exasperation which the mere 

48 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

name of the victorious iron-fisted General used to arouse 
during all the years of my childhood, even in silent, 
sedate Brittany. So I was a Httle ashamed of myself 
now for having allowed this " enfantillage " to rob me of 
the sincere pleasure which the kindly, cheery "good- 
morning" of the Emperor daily afforded me, and I dare 
say that I must in consequence have looked exceedingly 
sheepish. 

No doubt he noticed this, for he immediately took up 
the joke again, fearing evidently to pain me by any 
graver allusion to my feelings in the matter. 

"Well! well!" he said, with mock truculence. "I 
wish I could have seen you two quarrelling! But in a 
universe like ours nothing is impossible, for there are 
more things in heaven and earth than people generally 
dream of; so there is no reason why, instead of quarrel- 
ling, you should not eventually become the best of 
friends." 

"Without doubt," I conceded, merrily, "everything 
is possible, and when one is so far on one's way to the 
light it is clearly one's duty to go yet further." 

"That's right, that's right," approved the Emperor, 
with a third chuckle. "Cultivate the enemy's acquaint- 
ance, talk with him, set him thinking, and yet" — he 
concluded with sudden gravity — "if you did that you 
would be yourself no longer, which would be a thousand, 
thousand pities, so I will not press the suggestion." 

Some hours after this characteristic little incident I 
received an immense bouquet of snowy Marguerites, 
scarlet poppies, and deep sapphire-blue " Kaiserb lumen," 
tied by long streamers of white satin powdered with 
golden '' Fleurs dc Lys." Reposing within the flowers 
was a card upon which was inscribed, beneath the Im- 
perial Crown of the august sender: 

"Admirez ce singidier assemblage, qui satis jera, je Vespere, 

49 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

le grand cceur Breton et la petite tete frangaise potir qui 
il est destine!" (Admire this singular assemblage, which 
will, I hope, satisfy the big Breton heart and the little 
French head for which it is destined!) 

This was typical of Emperor William I., who was an 
irresistible old man, and to please whom I am certain I 
could have been brought to smile upon a dozen Bis- 
marcks, even in those irrational and impetuous days of 
my early youth. 

The so-nearly-successful attempt upon his grand- 
father's life was not the only sorrow which befell Prince 
William during his University course, for the shade of 
yet other troubles fell upon him with the death of his 
brother Prince Waldemar, and that of his aunt Grand 
Duchess Alice of Hesse, mother of the present Empress 
of Russia — events which deeply saddened the Imperial 
Family. 

During that period of mourning the young man lived 
very quietly and in almost complete retirement. He 
walked a great deal about his garden and on the river- 
path below, along the racing Rhine, or sat down to 
sketch some of the charming " points de vice " with which 
that picturesque shore abounds, for already then he was 
no mean hand with pencil and brush, and was a remark- 
able colorist as well. When he came home, fagged-out 
and dusty, he used to spend long hours in his study — 
a remarkably simple and work-a-day room — reflecting 
upon the lamentable fact that life is a bundle of pins, 
and man its pin-cushion — a truism, certainly, but a use- 
ful one to assimilate. 

He reverted to his old habit of reading much, choosing 
haphazard from the miscellaneous collection of volumes, 
comprising Dickens, Jules Verne, Droz, the German 
poets, Dumas, Byron, etc., filling the shelves behind his 
writing-table. Often, also, he would gaze abstractedly 

50 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

at the many large, framed photographs of the German 
fleet hanging on the walls, vaguely promising himself 
that one day he would create a splendid navy for the 
Empire — a plan which since the very beginning of his 
reign he has insisted upon. 

Meanwhile the seasons came and went with their usual 
praiseworthy regularity. The shining forests on the 
Rhine, turned to bronze by the autumn winds, were 
covered with their first dainty mantle of snow when 
the Grand Duchess von Hesse died ; the river gleamed 
violet-gray through the late March fogs when little 
Prince Waldemar followed her into the grave, and now 
there came with the spring flowers of 1879 a more than 
ordinary lavishness of light and color, of depth and at- 
mosphere into the Prince's life, something immeasurably 
beyond anything delicious he might have imagined or 
dreamed. There came into his eyes an unwonted glow 
— a softness quite delightful to watch. The Prince 
Charming had found his " Dornroschen." The Prince 
was in love! 



CHAPTER III 

ScHLOss Prinkenau! a fair castle, looking, turret 
for turret and battlement for battlement, as if torn 
bodily from the pages of some quaint, beautifully illu- 
minated volume of old legends. Vast, irregularly pictu- 
resque, the older portions quite grimly mediaeval — a veri- 
table lake-side fortress, with ponderous, square towers, 
gray stone walls, and moss-tinted machicolations — the 
more modern wings of gleaming granite, with fanciful 
carvings, spires, and pinnacles, light, gay, and hospitable, 
profiling their clear outlines against the vivid green of 
beech-trees, the dark, metallic hue of firs and pines, and 
the more delicate and silver-dappled tints of sycamores. 

The facade, mirroring its capricious contours in the 
waters of an exquisitely transparent little lake, arose 
proudly from banks of hortensias in full bloom, two 
swelling waves of purple and mauve, indigo and azure, 
deep rose and faint pink, whereon the sun-rays lovingly 
lingered, while to the right and left some gnarled old 
willows, bending over the waters, supported clambering 
roses both white and red, spreading to the topmost 
branches their nodding fragrance. 

A pretty picture, say you! Yes, undoubtedly, but 
" Wacht een beche," as the good Dutch say, for there is 
more to see, something in fact which, when he gazed 
upon it, made our Imperial hero's heart quicken and 
tremble. 

In the depths of the park, where the sun shone gently 
through a cool, green veil, gilding here and there with 

52 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

pinkish gold the points of the spears of grass through 
the interstices of the fohage, a hammock was swinging 
between two rose-garlanded firs — roses had a habit of 
climbing and clambering everywhere at Schloss Prin- 
kenau — and in that hammock fast asleep lay a girl whose 
rounded cheeks were flushed with the warm, healthy 
shell-pink, which is the prerogative of those who prefer 
the air as God made it to the comparative stuffiness of 
even the vastest of palaces. 

She was young, barely more than twenty, with softly 
chiselled features, hair sombre gold in the shadow, but 
where the truant sun-rays touched it the hue of liquid 
topaz — light and sparkling, indeed as if delicately pow- 
dered with jewel-dust — and a pretty mouth half parted 
in a smile, as if her dreams were singularly pleasant 
ones. 

The picture which she presented was perfect in tone, 
shape, and coloring. 

She wore a garden frock of light muslin the soft, bil- 
lowy folds showing to immense advantage her slender, 
reclining form, while some stray petals, wafted by the 
light breeze from the roses above, gave here and there 
delicious touches of satiny red and pale yellow. 

Even that sumptuous park would have looked dreary 
and empty had she not been there, so well did she fit in 
the princely landscape, so aptly did she form the very 
climax of that sylvan " niise en scene." 

The grand old trees seemed to whisper to one another, 
as did the tall, imperial lilies, the white meadow-sweets, 
and the haughty peonies, scattered in the grass, that 
the sight was good to behold, and here and there a 
little thrill of inexpressible gladness seemed to ruffle 
like crisping wavelets a field of anemones of all imagi- 
nable changeful hues stretching " d, perte de vue " the silk 
of their shivering corollas beneath the spreading boughs. 

53 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Suddenly the branches of a Siberian pine were gently 
parted, and a young man, erect and graceful, stepped into 
the bower where the hammock was swung, while a voice, 
youthful and well modulated, though expressing the 
extreme of joyful surprise, exclaimed: 

" Dornrosdicit !" 

The Prince had found his Princess! 

This is the true and authentic story of how it came 
about that Prince William, invited by Duke Frederick 
of Schleswig - Holstein - Sonderburg - Augustenburg, to 
visit him and his beautiful wife, the Duchess Adelheid, 
at their Castle of Prinkenau, left his heart behind him 
when a few weeks later he returned to his grandfather's 
Court. 

When he placed this newly born love of his before his 
family, he assumed a tone of high detachment, as was 
his invariable custom when desirous of concealing his 
deeper emotions, although his heart went hot and cold at 
the thought of his " Dorjtroschen," and at the inward 
consciousness that his way of expressing himself was but 
the blighted bud of what he had planned to say. So 
once more the ever-ready detractors had fair play, and 
clamored violently against so persistent a coldness and 
hardness of heart. 

After this, indeed, William — now a full-blown Royal 
Prince, graduated with honors from the University, 
and, placed in possession of all the privileges of his rank 
and position — seemed determined to show himself inore 
stiff and reticent than ever. Decidedly he was becoming 
a difficult puzzle to solve, for his reserve of manner was 
singularly impenetrable, he examined everything with 
his deep-blue eyes, calmly, distantly, and with no ap- 
parent interest, and when he spoke it was with a sort 
of gentle but icy indifference, although he certainly con- 
veyed no impression of sleepiness or abstraction. 

54 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Finding but little sympathy around him, he simply 
gave none, and was so unlike the ordinary run of young 
men that it was difficult to imagine him what he really 
was — imaginative, desirous of sympathy, hungering with 
a strange, pathetic, and never-satisfied hunger for ap- 
preciation. 

Those who, like Gortchakow, looked far, far deeper 
than the surface, knew that he had been ground in a 
ruthless mill — a mill which comes perilously near to 
grinding soul and heart to powder; but how many 
were there clever enough to thus explain his curious 
attitude ? 

Moreover, he was at that period of life when the 
whole being seems suddenly to become restless with 
that bewildering sensation of never having really lived, 
and when the young man scarcely knows how he 
should proceed to the fulfilment of all the tasks he has 
set for himself, all the dreams with which his brain 
aches. It is called by psychologues a " sickness of the 
soul" — not a bad definition for people who as a rule 
make a virtue of rendering everything they say unin- 
telligible and obscure. 

There was yet another, however, who in those days 
made no secret of his opinion that Prince William was 
misjudged, and that he would in a near future surprise 
the world and make a great and glorious name for him- 
self. This was King Christian of Denmark, who ever 
since a visit to Schloss Rumpenheim in Hesse (where a 
series of magnificent fetes were being given in honor of 
the aged Emperor William I., and where the Danish 
Monarch met Prince William) became much attached to 
him. 

Indeed, His Majesty of Denmark was so indignant 
when he witnessed the cavalier fashion in which the 
Imperial and Royal guests present seemed to wilfully 

55 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

wound the German Heir Presumptive, that he threw a 
great additional warmth into his own treatment of the 
young Prince and became his constant companion. 

From early morn till late at night the slender lad of 
twenty and the big, kindly, gentle-eyed man of sixty 
were together, and the King, filled with concern and 
sympathy, managed with the aid of that well-known 
smile of his, which went as an " avant-garde " to disarm 
resentment, to delicately probe the wounds inflicted 
upon his protege, and affably, softly, and persistently 
applied invisible balm of a very curative nature. 

When in the company of congenial people, be it said, 
Prince William was at once transformed, his very voice 
became brisk and cheerful, and its abruptness was so 
tempered by manifest good-will that it grew absolutely 
lovable, especially as there was then and is still to-day 
something pleasingly boyish in its timbre. At such 
times, too, he carried his head well thrown back in a 
singularly un-self -conscious manner, and not a bit rigidly 
or stiffly, his vehemence of action lending him nothing 
but an additional and very personal charm. 

King Christian, a most inspiritingly young old man, 
dispensed comfort and amusement (two commodities 
which count for infinitely more with some spirits than 
stern reprimand and assiduous preachings) unsparingly, 
with the very natural result that this attitude of his has 
never been forgotten, and that William II. displays 
towards few people so great an amount of affection, rev- 
erence, and touching, almost filial deference, as that 
which he shows to this consoler of his youthful trials. 

One of his first visits after his accession to the Throne 
in 1888 was to this old friend, upon whom he has not 
ceased to shower the most profuse and lovingly thought- 
out attentions, for Emperor William possesses to an 
extraordinary degree "la mhnoire du cceur," and when he 

56 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

thinks that he has reason to be grateful, be it for the small- 
est service, he knows well how to display the deepest 
and most touching gratitude. There is never with him 
any question of "shirking or burking it." It is a won- 
derful quality — that of gratitude — and a very wide- 
spread belief prevails to the effect that Monarchs from 
the very beginning of Monarchy have been lamentably 
lacking in this respect, Not so, however, Emperor 
William, who never and under no circumstances whatso- 
ever omits to remember the very slightest kindness done 
to him or those he loves. 

With each step that he took forward, now, however, 
Prince William gradually regained an equanimity that 
was really natural to him. Although the part he had 
to play was an odd and a difficult one, he faced the 
complexities of the game, and by the time his engage- 
ment was formally announced felt happier than he 
had ever been since his childhood. His whole nature 
now aimed at an atmosphere of tenderness and of rever- 
ent romance; but his entourage did not harmonize with 
such a mood, and so he kept it carefully concealed, like 
a man in a climate that does not suit his health, and who 
takes every precaution against outside influences. 

All the scurrilous stories circulated concerning the 
many alleged intrigues of Prince William with women 
of all classes and conditions are the most abominable 
tissue of lies ever invented. Immorality of whatsoever a 
kind has always filled him with a sort of physical dis- 
gust and a feeling of uncomprehending wonder, certain- 
ly quite distinct from prudery, but which set him very 
much apart from other young men similarly situated. 

The feverish brilliancy of vice was to him utterly 
hateful. He realized, doubtless, as all other men do, 
its power and magnetic influence; but those who claim 
that he yielded to either simply do not know whereof 

57 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

they speak, for his purity of life was even frequently 
made the subject of unkind comment at Vienna, where 
extraordinary punctiliousness in that particular is not 
the order of the day — or night! 

In the days of which I now speak Prince William and 
Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria were intimate friends, 
and the latter, who was justly reputed to play sad havoc 
with feminine hearts, and to be one of the gayest of the 
gay, looked with amazement upon the singularly blame- 
less career of his dearest "chum," as he used to call the 
Prince. Indeed, I have heard him myself declare many 
a time that it was quite discouraging to try and get Will- 
iam interested in what usually attracts and fascinates 
benedicts, because he was so obstinately deaf to the 
riotous voice of mere pleasure. 

I have watched him personally during a remarkably 
vivacious "Faschmg" at the Austrian Court, and was 
really astonished to see so young a man, look as if he 
deliberately ignored the brilliant revellers, who were 
so near to him in body, and appeared so far away from 
him in mind and similarity of tastes. He impressed me 
decidedly as some one who has a great purpose in view, 
which serves him as a very efficient deterrent, and which, 
like a delicious " mirage " rises and floats before the real 
scenery that lies temptingly spread along the borders 
of the "primrose path." He had all the more merit 
in thus acting, since his birth and youth alone would 
have given him a marked position in the front rank of 
the endless turmoil, noise, and intrigue which make up 
" le nionde ou Von s' amuse,'' and since it falls to the lot of 
Royal and Imperial Princes to find many beautiful and 
eminently desirable women, enthusiastically ready to 
cross in their favor the border-line which separates 
mere indiscretion from something far worse. 

Since the day when he found his "Dornroschen," his 

58 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

whole attitude has been charmingly chivalrous and ten- 
der towards the woman he loves, and who so truly de- 
serves it. This grim War Lord's chivalry is not shift- 
ing but permanent, and all the romance within him has 
flowed instinctively and ceaselessly to the fair girl he 
found asleep amid the roses; all his attentions have 
clustered around her footstool, and their union has been 
an absolutely model one, with a great love and a great 
confidence on both sides. 

Princess Augusta-Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Son- 
derburg-Augustenburg was a happy, wholesome, light- 
hearted girl, and since Prince William's visit to Schloss 
Prinkenau a curious little inward glow, a sense of joy 
and well-being accompanied her everywhere, mingling 
w4th and sweetening whatever she thought or did. 

Something, too, had changed in her young face, a soft 
change which came and went with all her dreams of 
him, intensified by a grave, gentle smile, pertaining more 
to the eyes than to the lips, when she pondered upon her 
own good chance and the delicious future Fortune had 
in store for her. Her Prince had appeared, and, behold, 
his presence had merged with and intensified her " joie 
de vivre." It had supplied the one feature needed to per- 
fect her existence! 

The Princess was neither sentimental nor lackadaisi- 
cal — she had far too much sound common-sense and 
health of mind for that — but a curiously deep satisfaction, 
a feeling that for the moment, at any rate, the world left 
nothing to be wished for, made her already extreme kind- 
ness and graciousness of heart and soul yet more con- 
spicuously so, her light step more airy, her unselfish- 
ness and generosity more marked. She did not speak 
of this newly found love-treasure of hers, but her very 
smile said, just as explicitly as her voice could have 
done, "I am very, very happy." 
5 59 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

She had awakened out of her sleep in the hammock 
to discover a stranger - Prince who suddenly became 
to her the person of first importance in the world, by 
far the most precious and dear, and it gave her the great- 
est of great joys to think of him and of the fact that 
soon he would be all in all to her. 

No wonder that infinite admiration of her filled Prince 
William's heart, as well as infinite delight at the knowl- 
edge that he would henceforth have such a life's com- 
panion, he who had never felt a real, genuine, heart- 
flutter for a woman. 

Besides, if he had been — as the ever-eager " chronique 
scandaleiise" will have it — "in love" a hundred times, 
it would not have in the least signified, since the senti- 
ment he entertained for her was as distinct from that 
unfortunate state as a beautiful, silvery, softly illumi- 
nating, and all-embellishing moon-ray is from the ir- 
ritating, depoetizing glare of a gas-fiame. 

This newly found tenderness was something indescrib- 
ably sweet to him, who had always felt so much alone, 
and the reaction when he left her was dreary and dis- 
piriting in a superlative degree. Fortunately he had 
her letters to console him, to put the clouds to flight, or 
at least to illumine them for the time being and trans- 
figure all around him with a roseate glory. 

These letters, written at a little desk gay with flowers, 
within the deep embrasure of a window at the far end of 
a cool, mediaeval-looking room, overlooking the dense, 
velvety verdure of the park at Prinkenau, were enough 
to hearten and cheer the most inveterate misanthrope, 
so I have been told, for she wrote as if her pen had been 
dipped in a drop of liquid light, and a ripple of pure 
happiness and joyful hope ran throagh every line she 
sent him. 

All those around her benefited by her sunny state of 

60 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

heart and mind, for, always ready to aid and assist every- 
body, she was now doubly so. 

Once she and her sister, now Princess Frederick-Leo- 
pold of Prussia, were walking home through the beauti- 
ful woods which surround the Schloss. It was late in 
the afternoon, and already in the west the sky was be- 
ginning to put on the gold-and-rose splendor of its bed- 
time hour; the air was inexpressibly calm, yet the green 
vault above the two young girls and the dense under- 
growth at their feet were busy with mysterious sound 
and movement, for sable-winged ravens circled far over- 
head in the velvety blue, lapwings, bees, crickets, butter- 
flies, and tree-frogs rustled and murmured unseen, while 
now and again blackbirds and green-finches gave vent 
to a sweet, shrill note, and ring-doves repeated and re- 
peated again and again their soft, melodious love-call 
before tucking their gentle little heads beneath their 
silky wings in sleep. 

Far above the fair pedestrians in the narrow bridle- 
path, between the two flower-starred walls of ferns bor- 
dering it, a human figure, bent and burdened, was slowly 
moving, dragging a hand-cart loaded with fagots. 

As the Princesses came nearer, they saw that it was a 
very old woman, ragged, dusty, barefoot, and incredibly 
wrinkled and toothless. Pale, pinched, hungry, weary, 
the aged crone had upon her withered countenance an 
expression of dogged resolution and anxious responsi- 
bility, pathetic to behold. The fagots were heavy, and 
for one step that she pulled the cart forward up the 
hill it recoiled two, so weak were her old, heavily 
veined, brown hands, and so inadequate to the task 
they attempted to accomplish; but yet she was facing 
the ascent resolutely and with unconquerable courage. 

Down in her heart the poor thing was evidently filled 
with terror lest the little cart should suddenly escape 

6i 



IMPEHATOR ET REX 

from her feeble hold, and go crashing down the incline 
into the valley below, for then what could she do ? Yet 
she uttered no murmur, and mastered her fears as she 
did her almost complete exhaustion, with that dogged 
physical endurance which is the one ineradicable qual- 
ity of the European peasant of every nationality. 

Without a second's hesitation. Princess Augusta-Vic- 
toria motioned to her sister to take hold of one of the 
shafts, while she grasped the other, and at a smart trot 
the fagot -laden cart was drawn triumphantly up the 
remainder of the hill, followed by its amazed and be- 
wildered owner, who, with arms upheld as in unconscious 
benediction, hobbled along invoking all the favors of 
Heaven upon this merry " attslage " of Princesses. 

At the top of the hill, when she relinquished the res- 
cued fire-wood, the future Empress emptied the con- 
tents of her little purse into the thin, trembling hand ex- 
tended to resume its task, and, without pausing to receive 
the incoherent thanks of the pitiful old woman, ran 
lightly on, racing her sister to the very portals of the 
castle. 

This is but one of the many acts of kindness performed 
by the Princess during that period of perfect bliss which 
preceded her official betrothal, and which have not been 
forgotten in her own land, you may be sure. 

The betrothal ceremony was to take place early in the 
following winter, but the sudden death of the Duke of 
Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg was the 
cause of a delay, during which the Princess's new-found 
joy was often drowned in bitter tears. 

The official proclamation of the engagement took 
place only on June 2, 1880, at the Castle of Babelsberg, 
one of the favorite residences of William the Great. 

Babelsberg is a beautiful Gothic building, enthroned 
on balustered terraces, with countless crenellated towers 

62 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

and turrets overlooking an inner " Courd'Honneur " and 
a formal walled garden divided by yews clipped in fantas- 
tic patterns. Ivy climbs upon the walls, and so pict- 
uresque is the whole " tout-cnscmble " that no fitter place 
could have been chosen for the ceremony. 

As soon as the fifty-four distinguished guests had as- 
sembled in the so - called Round Drawing - room, the 
Grand-Master of the Court, Count Schleinitz, entered 
and formally announced the engagement of his Royal 
and Imperial Highness, Prince William, and of Her 
Highness Princess Augusta-Victoria of Schleswig-Hol- 
stein, and as he pronounced the last words the double 
doors at the upper end flew open and the fiancee entered 
leaning upon the arm of her handsome and still wonder- 
fully youthful grandfather-in-law that was to be. 

The Princess looked brilliantly happy and sparkling; 
her eyes were bent down upon a large bouquet of lilies 
of the valley and white roses which she carried in her 
left hand, and which gleamed softly in its circlet of 
dark-green leaves against the snowiness of her long- 
trained white silk dress. Upon her sunny head was set 
a white hat covered with lilies of the valley — " Maiglock- 
chen" (May -bells), as they so prettily call them over 
there, and six rows of admirable pearls were fastened at 
her throat by a magnificent diamond clasp. The after- 
noon was bright, and the sun flooding in through the 
open windows shone full upon her and upon the old Em- 
peror, showing distinctly how strong and powerful this 
remarkable man still was, spite of time and all that 
time had brought of fatigue, anxiety, and danger; how 
stalwart in his perfectly fitting uniform, with his ruddy 
complexion, and the proud and gratified expression hov- 
ering around his lips and flickering in his kindly, honest 
eyes. 

At a sign from him. Prince William advanced, and, of- 

63 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

fering his arm to his betrothed, led the cortege to the 
banqueting-hall, where a splendid lunch was prepared. 

Every one present remarked the happiness expressed 
in the Princess's countenance, and which seemed to 
visibly emanate from her whole graceful person — the 
sparkle of her radiant blue eyes, in which there was a 
suggestion of beautiful hidden depths of love and ten- 
derness that none had yet fathomed. Far away down 
in these depths was her soul, her real self, which had been 
called to life by the voice of her Prince. 

And the Prince, in this moment when she was being 
proclaimed his before all the world, gazed at her with a 
great tenderness in his eyes, and a great wonder, too, as 
if he, whose thought hitherto had ever been devoted to 
her happiness, suddenly saw his own barren and rather 
sad life transformed into an endless succession of days 
bright with joy and hope. 

As soon, however, as he felt that he was observed, he 
froze up again into proud reserve; but when his eyes 
were irresistibly drawn anew to her, her influence reas- 
serted itself with the suddenness of a ray of light upon 
a jewel, transforming him utterly, humanizing him as 
it were, and melting the surcoat of ice in which that 
famous Hohenzollern training, and other circumstances 
too long to recount, had managed to imprison the warm- 
hearted, ardent youth for so long. 

It was a great day for all, this betrothal at Schloss 
Babelsberg. The whole castle was decorated and 
wreathed with flowers, palms, and blossoming plants ; the 
" crhne de la creme," the very ''elite'' of the Prussian aris- 
tocracy, was present, while letters and telegrams from 
hundreds and hundreds of well - wishers arrived con- 
stantly. Indeed, it was an event which had had no 
parallel at the Court of Berlin for many, many years, 
for was not this love-match between the heir of the 

64 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Hohenzollerns and the daughter of the Duke of Schles- 
wig-Holstein — whose patrimony had been engulfed in 
the Kingdom of Prussia — also a sort of reparation, the 
complete eradication of a feud ? 

The pretty little Duchies, with their treasures of 
lovely forests and pasture-lands which " Dornroschen " 
loved so well, were going to be hers now, once and for all 
time. Not that she would not willingly have sacri- 
ficed fifty Duchies for one look of her lover's eyes; but 
still the cannon firing joyful salutes from the keep at 
Babelsberg had a singularly triumphant and, yes, 
peaceful echo in response to its warlike din on that 
momentous afternoon. 

Unfortunately such felicitous hours cannot last forever, 
and soon Prince William, separated anew from his Prin- 
cess, became once more the grim, glum, laconic young 
man, whom so few understood or sympathized with. 
Morose and listless, as if every vestige of sunshine had 
again been torn out of his life, he turned to military 
pursuits with almost passionate energy, in order to 
drive away the persistent melancholy, the unsatisfied 
yearning engendered by her absence. 

Interest in everything pertaining to the army was 
so deeply inbred a characteristic of this son of a warrior 
race that he really loved spending his days in drilling 
his men, his evenings in poring over books of strategy or 
the " Kriegspiel," which both in Austria and in Germany 
is an obligatory occupation for staff-officers. He per- 
plexed himself for hours together as to whether the con- 
dition of the troops in peace or war could not be amelio- 
rated, and he was a truly gallant figure when, at the 
head of his men, he sent his commands ringing loud 
and long upon the early morning breeze with the reso- 
nance of steel smiting against steel. 

It was noble and austere, the life led at that time by 

65 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

the young Prince, but it was lonely and monotonous, 
too, at an age when one cares generally for diversion 
and amusement; still, during these months of separation, 
the remarkable plans which later on were to bear abun- 
dant fruit and cause the German army to become the 
first and foremost in the world, and to bring into exist- 
ence the fine German navy of to-day, were first origi- 
nated by that active brain; and so he himself must 
scarcely now regret that dreary interval. 

Even those who contemplate a contemporary Mon- 
arch's life with that sublime indifference which is the only 
true philosophy ever displayed by the anti-monarchical, 
cannot deny that Emperor William's career, even if 
merely set down as a series of events, would make what 
the literary critics call "good reading." Add the con- 
necting links which a more intimate knowledge of the 
question permits,- and the least clever of writers cannot 
but present to the reading public the portrayal of a man 
who has always known what he wanted, and has reached 
his aim with an energy seldom encountered in this age of 
supreme "veulerie." — I apologize humbly for using French 
slang, but, as it happens, there is no word in EngHsh 
which can so well express my thoughts. — But to pursue. 

Prince William was not a man to forget what he con- 
sidered to be his duty — you may rely on that. He might 
have lived a pampered, idle life, had he so willed it, in 
some sunshiny little garrison town, but he preferred 
Berlin and its gray skies, its unappreciative atmosphere, 
constant labor, and the over-exertion that tastes of ut- 
ter weariness at times, for he believed that an army 
which stood so conspicuously in the front as did that 
of Prussia in 1870-71 could be borne on to yet greater 
efficiency, and he cherished the belief that he, its future 
Generalissimo, was the man responsible for its ultimate 
welfare. 

66 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Although this is scarcely yet the moment for me to en- 
ter into that portion of his work — even were it my inten- 
tion to do so at length — it might be mentioned that the 
important new army-laws signed by Emperor William I. 
on February ii, 1888 — a few weeks before his death — 
and which were the starting-point of the reforms in or- 
ganization that have brought the German army to its 
present state of almost perfection, were inspired in a 
great measure by Prince William. And be it said 
again, in spite of all that was murmured at the time 
against him, both in Germany and abroad, those who 
had eyes to see must have then, at least, perceived, if 
looking with understanding at his square chin, his steady, 
brilliant eyes and clean-cut features, that they stood in 
the presence of that rare and invaluable creation — a 
strong man. 

The power of concentration is a gift in itself, extreme- 
ly enviable, and this gift Prince William possessed to so 
unusual a degree that, whatever his study or pursuit 
of the moment, he gave himself up to it body and soul. 

On the parade-ground he who was so bitterly and 
sneeringly accused of caring too much for his appearance 
and dress, gave not a thought to his muddy boots or 
to the condition to which wind and weather often re- 
duced his uniform, but went through all the routine 
duties pertaining to his rank as an officer with a punc- 
tiliousness and thoroughness which seemed almost un- 
conscious and mechanical, as indeed it may well have 
been, since his brain was always working at a high rate 
of pressure in the furtherance of his favorite schemes. 
Surely there is nothing finer than a man who works 
with his brain as well as with his arm at one and the 
same time. 

Fencing was at that period Prince William's pet rec- 
reation, and it was really a pleasure to watch him in 

67 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

what the French call an ' ' assaut d' amies. ' ' So quick were 
his movements that the eye could scarcely follow them; 
truly he was as graceful, lithe, noiseless, and swift as a 
panther, leaping forward and falling back on guard like 
a flash, performing a hundred tricks of the fencing-floor 
with marvellous celerity, and touching his adversary on 
shoulder, arm, and chest so persistently that it took a 
very first-class blade to oppose his. He never awaited 
the attack, but was always the assailant, and, although 
in those bouts his " fleuret" was naturally quite harm- 
less, yet the way in which he made it resound through 
the air vividly suggested the threatening note of com- 
bative steel. 

Upright and still and thoughtful, with quiet, remem- 
bering eyes, speaking but little in his gently abrupt 
way — for the last two years had taught him to weigh 
every word he uttered, and he never said more than 
he meant — such was the fiance awaiting the hour that 
was to unite him to the woman of his choice, and when- 
ever she saw him he conveyed to her in one look the 
knowledge that she was the whole world to him, and 
that his love and boundless trust were thrusting upon 
her the greatest responsibility that any soul can carry 
— that of making another life as complete a happiness 
as human nature is permitted to obtain. 

She herself said, just before leaving her dear old 
home to make her formal entrance into Berlin: "I do 
not in any way imagine that my new life will be a thorn- 
less bed of roses, but I have faith, and Wilhelm also, 
and we have agreed to share our sorrows, as we will share 
our joys, so that the burden, whatever it may be, will 
never be too heavy for our joint strength." 

This creed, without compromise, was surely a touch- 
ing and a beautiful one for a young girl whose destiny 
was to be the loftiest which the world has to offer, but 

68 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

hers was that fine, steely strength which endures through 
a Hfetime without a flaw, that profound, unchangeable 
love which, when her eyes rested upon him, lighted 
them up with a gleam that was strangely adoring 
and at the same time dimly protecting and mater- 
nal. 

She was at the parting of the ways, was Princess 
Augusta-Victoria; none could point out her path ex- 
cepting herself, but that path was an assured one, since 
it led her to the arms of the man who was all in all to 
her, and whom she so implicitly trusted that she would 
have liked to cry out aloud what she knew him to be. 
She was sure of her lover, which is perhaps happiness 
enough for this world, and at his side she knew that 
duty would be made easy. 

The feudal spirit, which is as strong in German and 
Austrian Princes to-day as it was hundreds of years 
ago, found in this young girl a very lovable expression. 
She had taken it, for instance, as a matter of course, 
that it was her duty to care for the tenants and peasants 
on the Prinkenau estate, and to relieve as far as lay 
within her power the distress which comes to the poor 
during the winter especially, and when the time came 
to bid them good-bye her heart grew heavy. Clad in a 
serviceable, short, tailor-made frock and a jacket and 
cap of black fur, she spent the greater portion of the 
day walking from cottage to cottage giving a little part- 
ing souvenir wherever she went, listening patiently to 
the old story of poverty and privation, and cheering 
the tellers with her radiant smile, her quick sympathy, 
and her whispered promises of better things to come. 
She was brisk and cheerful in her well-doings, this gra- 
cious lady, destined to ascend the steps of a Throne, al- 
though somewhat intolerant of anything that savored 
of laziness or lack of courage, and she parted with a 

69 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

good deal of sound advice during her swift rambles 
along the frozen paths of her domain. 

The snow lay thickly upon the ground, and often it 
was quite dark when she returned from visiting some 
distant cottage in the depths of the pine-woods, the 
trees around her standing grim and rigid, braced by the 
iron frost to bear their burden of icicles without creak 
or rattle. 

There is no silence like that of a Northern pine forest 
in winter, nor anything half as magnificent as the pict- 
ure it presents when the trees are snow-clad, and when 
the silvery twilight of the crystallized boughs which 
conceal the noiseless creatures, furred and feathered, that 
take shelter there, meets the long, golden twilight of 
those regions, creeping in rosy and metallic gleams to- 
gether to the most distant corner and hiding-place. 

At last, just on such an evening, the Princess's task 
came to its end, and she hurried home to the castle, 
glowing from its dark setting of evergreens with the 
brightness of a rare jewel. Quickly she entered the hall 
where the portraits of her warrior ancestors rose one 
above the other to the groined and heavily carved ceil- 
ing, and ran up-stairs lightly as a bird to take leave of 
the house-servants. Many of them had been there long 
ere she was born; some of them had told her, when 
she was as yet little more than a baby, inspiring family 
legends, full of hazardous exploits and daring courage, 
narrations pregnant with the simple and unconscious 
grandeur of the men of days long gone by, to which 
she had listened, her blue eyes wide open and fixed, 
fascinated and enthralled until the last word had been 
spoken and she had heard in imagination the last charge 
of cavalry thunder past, the last droning rattle of the 
murderous arquebuses, the last cry of triumph from 
the heroic victors. 

70 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Now, too, a last word had to be spoken, and it was 
one of adieu to those faithful souls, who seemed to form 
part of her own family, so long had they served it. 
Bravely their young mistress held back her tears and 
left to them all the remembrance of that fascinating, 
brilliant smile of hers, so winning and so true; and when 
the last hand had been pressed, the last benedictions 
showered upon her fair head, she departed from Schloss 
Prinkenau, where she had lived so happily and peace- 
fully, accompanied by the regrets of all. 

One of the charms of Princess Augusta-Victoria was 
her honesty of purpose ; her simplicity of manner, which 
was that of strength — comprising much gentleness and 
excluding all violence. Her smile, too, was full of loyal 
confidence, and showed that she never could entertain 
a doubt about accomplishing her intent. She had 
agreed with her lover that as long as life endured there 
would never be any foolish misunderstandings between 
them, that they were to be frank in all things, and to 
take frankness each from the other without offence, that 
any peril to be encountered, any risk to be run, was to 
be divided share and share alike. So what had she to 
fear from the future ? Never had she cared so much 
for him, never had she recognized his value so thorough- 
ly as at the moment when she set ofE to rejoin him, 
no more to leave his side. His words of love seemed 
to go ringing down the world with her, persistent in 
her ears, spoken with the very accent of his voice. She 
knew that she would hear them thus to the end of time, 
and gather from them joy and courage. 



CHAPTER IV 

It is a custom with the Hohenzollerns that the Prin- 
cesses with whom they ally themselves should start 
from the Castle of Bellevue to make their formal entry 
into Berlin; and at sunrise upon the morning of January 
27, 1 88 1, the men employed in the superb greenhouses 
of the Thiergarten were already busily decorating, not 
only Bellevue itself, but the entire " parcoitrs " to be fol- 
lowed by the bride's cortege. 

This was to be a very gorgeous pageant, and long be- 
fore the moment when her great, gilded coach, drawn 
by eight magnificent black horses, made its appearance 
upon the rose-strewn avenue leading to the " Branden- 
biirger -Thor," thousands upon thousands of people 
lined the way — a ''via triumphalis " garlanded, berib- 
boned, and oriflammed — which later on was to resound 
with the loudest cheers and hurrahs heard there since 
the return of the victorious Emperor in 187 1. 

The crowd was amazingly well behaved, and, until 
a flourish of trumpets announced the approach of the 
fair ''fiancee," silent and impressively still, although it 
was easy to perceive that every now and then a thrill 
of expectation passed like a wave over the multitude, 
which suddenly swayed against the cordon of soldiers 
standing with grounded arms all the way from the gates 
of Bellevue to those of the Royal Palace. 

The whole town was charmingly decorated, rich and 
squalid portions alike, the palaces, the churches, the 
hovels, the brilliant emporiums and the dark little 

72 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

shops, having hung out flags and pennons, draperies 
and wreaths of green twigs of oak and laurel and pine, 
in enthusiastic testimony of an ardent desire on the 
part of the Berlinese to receive this future Empress fit- 
tingly. 

The welcome was very complete, the long magnificence 
of that dazzling procession, the great thoroughfares with 
crescents and stars and garlands of flowers emblazoning 
all the houses, the exuberant joy of the people — every- 
thing, down to the smallest detail, was perfect, and 
must have been indeed gratifying to the new-comer. 

And where, meanwhile, was the bridegroom? With 
that martial coquetry which has been a characteristic of 
so many great soldiers. Prince William had determined 
to greet his " fiancee " at the head of his company of Foot 
Guards, those gigantic soldiers whose towering peaked 
shakos of white metal, and uniforms prodigal of gold and 
embroidery and trappings — and therefore very brilliant 
and very goodly to behold — remain the same as in the 
days of Frederick the Great. So, ere break of day, he 
had started for Potsdam to rejoin his men, this gal- 
lant, courageous, generous young officer, so greatly be- 
loved by them, and a few moments before the arrival 
of his bride had led them, " mitsique en tete," into the 
" Cour d'Honneur" of his grandfather's palace. 

The meeting of the lovers was one of the prettiest 
sights imaginable, and is remembered to this day in 
Berlin. The bride, after alighting from her great, gilded 
coach, advanced a step or two towards him, her exquisite 
white robe gleaming and glowing as she moved, and the 
flowers at her breast looking no whiter than her face — 
suddenly blanched with deep emotion — while the Prince, 
slender, of middle height, but long limbed and well 
knit like an athlete, took her hands in his, bending low 
over them, and then kissed her gently on both cheeks. 

73 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

The old Emperor, whose face was positively beaming 
with joy, made the premier-lieutenant of his grandson's 
company a captain on the spot, so as to enable the 
Prince to leave his command for the time being, and 
this gracious act caused a moment of delighted, intent 
silence — a sort of pause closed by the drums and fifes 
thrilling suddenly with a startling clearness, like a sharp 
volley of applause, diminishing and growing again in 
volume as the colors were dipped in honor of the bridal 
pair and the promoted officer. 

In the years which followed, that moment was to 
recur again and again to the recollection of those pres- 
ent as something peculiarly solemn and imposing. The 
big Grenadiers, with their immense, old-fashioned head- 
gear, the file of gilded equipages, the palace steps thick- 
ly strewn with rose-petals, the young people gazing so 
lovingly at each other under the benignant contem- 
plation of the Great Emperor, the newly appointed cap- 
tain, red with pride, standing at attention with his drawn 
sword, and behind him the drums and fifes calling 
loudly and then dwindling to a sort of soft martial 
rhythm, beckoning, as it were, the bridal pair towards a 
brilliant future — all these details made up a picture of 
which no lapse of time can ever quite efface the splendid 
coloring and happy significance. 

The wedding was in itself a truly Regal ceremony. 
The chapel of the castle, a spacious and lofty octagonal 
building in the Byzantine polychromatic style, shim- 
mering in a haze of dazzling light, was filled with flow- 
ers and crowded with exquisitely gowned women and 
men in glittering uniforms. Among the guests were 
Their Majesties of Saxony, Grand Duke Alexis, Crown 
Prince Rudolph of Austria, the Crown Prince and Crown 
Princess of Sweden, the Prince of Wales (now King Ed- 
ward VII.), the Grand Duchess of Baden, Princess Chris- 

74 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

tian, the Duke of Edinburgh and his Duchess (nee 
Grand Duchess Marie-Alexandrowna of Russia), the late 
Duke of Aosta, and a score of other illustrious person- 
ages, followed by their Ladies and Gentlemen-in-wait- 
ing, all attired with the greatest magnificence. 

The bride herself, who looked remarkably to her ad- 
vantage, wore white - and - silver brocade and priceless 
antique lace clasped with flashing diamond buckles 
which supported trails of freshly gathered myrtle and 
orange blossoms. On her blond head the crown of 
Prussia's Princesses sparkled above a tiny fringe of myr- 
tle, and her long lace veil enwrapped her with a sort 
of delicately vaporous mystery. Her tall, exquisitely 
modelled figure carried off the Hohenzollern diamonds 
to perfection, and as she walked down the aisle, lean- 
ing on the arm of her young husband, an audible murmur 
of approval made itself heard — a great and unusual 
tribute in an assembly which few sights are capable of 
pleasing or of astonishing. Her train was carried by her 
four bridesmaids — the Countesses Victoria Bernstoff, 
Pauline Kalckreuth, Mathilda Keller, and Mathilda Puck- 
ler, accompanied by the Princess's Grand Mistress of the 
Robes, Countess Brockdorff — and as the procession left 
the altar thirty-six salvos of artillery boomed forth, al- 
most drowning Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus rolling 
grandly from the organ. Slowly and imposingly the 
cortege returned to the " Weisse-Saal," from which they 
had started, and where a " Defiler-Cour " now took place, 
followed by a " diner de gala " in the " Rittcrsaal." 

During all this trying ordeal Princess William — as she 
was henceforth to be called — bore herself with the most 
charming simplicity and self-possession; she seemed to 
have a fresh smile for each new person presented to her, 
and yet there was not in her attitude the least little bit 
of that modern forwardness which passes under the 
6 75 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

name of " bonne camaraderie,'" for she was " tres Grande 
Dame," which is the highest compHment one can pay 
even to a Royal Lady. 

Moreover, her graceful uprightness of carriage and the 
wholesome rose of her fresh, young face, distinguished her 
at once among the pallid " inondaines" surrounding her, 
and made her remarkable, as some free and dignified 
denizen of the forest in the midst of domesticated lions, 
or, to be less grandiloquent, like a pure, dew-washed, fra- 
grant, open-air blossom, raising its dainty corolla above 
an intoxicatingly perfumed mass of forced hot -house 
blooms. 

Added to this she had more to say than other girls, 
whether Royal or otherwise, a larger stock of knowl- 
edge, a wider range of serious thoughts, and in giving 
expression to them she looked brighter, prettier, and 
more intelligent than they — a novelty, indeed, after the 
small-change of ordinary Court gossip. Nor is it a small 
thing to be exposed to the flash of experienced eyes, 
which see without appearing to look, and to please 
those mercilessly critical optics, and yet everybody was 
unanimously conscious that her presence caused a curi- 
ous "fraicheur" and vitality to permeate the atmosphere, 
like a breath of reviving and bracing air in a close 
place. 

All those assembled there to wish her luck were pleas- 
urably surprised, and there was a general sense of joyful 
relaxation as the illustrious guests took their places 
around the brilliantly lighted board, groaning beneath 
its weight of massive gold and silver plate, banks of 
exotics, Venetian crystal, and pyramids of superb fruit. 
Everybody's characteristics became rather more ac- 
centuated than before, every one was at Philharmonic 
pitch and at his or her very best. 

Popularity and lasting appreciation would have fol- 

76 




PRINCE HENRY OF PRUSSIA, BROTHER OF THE EMPEROR 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

lowed this excellent first impression as naturally as day 
follows night, but unfortunately those accustomed to 
read the signs of favor or disfavor in a monarchical firma- 
ment, felt at once that there was hidden deep below the 
surface-welcome accorded to the Princess an icy under- 
current, which it would not be advisable to stem or to 
disregard, for so to do would be to affront some of the 
powers that were. Therefore the seeds of much that 
became painful later on were sown in that very hour. 

According to an ancient custom dating as far back 
as the Middle Ages, the younger Hohenzollern Princesses 
waited upon the Emperor and Empress, the King and 
Queen of Saxony, and the bridal couple, and at dessert 
the aged Head of the House rose and proposed the 
health of Prmce and Princess William, in terms so ten- 
der and affecting that his words thrilled many hearts 
with a warmth not felt for years. 

Prince William himself looked as if he were a little 
dazed; his bride's all-pervading charm made him per- 
chance once again distrust himself as utterly as he had 
done before on the other great occasions of his life ; this 
newly found joy of his was so intense that it started 
upon him as if he had hitherto been asleep in a dark 
room and had now awakened to find it suddenly blaz- 
ing with lights. Artistically speaking, the change should 
have been modulated a little more, for it was just a shade 
too abrupt for comfort, a little too Wagnerian in its 
violent change of key, and for once, while his grand- 
father was speaking, he was thrown off his guard, his 
breast heaved with intense emotion, his blue eyes shone 
through a mist, and the white line of his teeth just 
showed closely pressed on his under-lip. But " Bah!" 
happiness does not unfocus one for long, even when one 
is unused to it, and it is comparatively easy to adjust 
one's self to a new view of things when these things are 

77 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

pleasant. His beloved grandsire's eloquent phrases, 
which said enough, but not too much, of the past and the 
future, with a grace entirely remote from a form of ad- 
dress generally halting and somewhat uncouth, gave him 
time to recover his perfect equanimity, and few noticed 
this strange little break in his customary composure, 

A woman is never too young or too old, too guileless 
or too innocent, to be averse to the thought that she 
can charm, and the bride was not insensible to the deli- 
cate compliments paid her in that gracious speech, and 
which throughout dinner in that great hall had been 
laid at her feet by many of those present; while the 
guests seated at that magnificent table murmured 
among themselves that this golden-haired, soft-cheeked, 
lace-enwrapped " Mariee " was " jolie a croqiier," as she 
chatted frankly, unaffectedly, and pleasantly, now and 
again resting a glance of tender affection upon the 
stately figure of the aged Emperor, or one of deep 
love upon her young husband. 

At last the boom of cannon was heard in a final sa- 
lute, and the " Herrschaften " rose to return to the 
White-Hall, where the " Fackeltanz " was to take place. 

This form of entertainment — by no means an unquali- 
fied entertainment, but a mere matter of form and time- 
honored usage, infinitely boring for the participants, 
and not very attractive for on-lookers, satiated with such 
pageants — began as soon as the Emperor and Empress, 
together with their Royal guests, had disposed them- 
selves on and around the dais. 

The ''Polonaise " was preluded by a brilliant chromatic 
passage compelling silence, and the twelve Cabinet Min- 
isters, who were to act as torch -bearers, advanced tow- 
ards the bridal pair, preceded by the Grand Master of 
the Ceremonies tapping his ivory wand of office upon 
the polished floor. 

78 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Suddenly the call of a silver trumpet thrilled through 
space like a vibrating spear of sound, and at the mo- 
ment when the twelve Excellencies stepped forth two 
by two, followed by Prince and Princess William, hand 
in hand, that call broke like quicksilver into a thousand 
rounded fragments of harmony, collecting themselves 
again, quavering and triUing, and ceasing only for a 
few seconds, quite abruptly, when, having returned to 
the Throne, the Prince and Princess bowing low before 
the Emperor, the procession started anew, accompanied 
this time by the handsome old Monarch himself, while 
the dazzling crowd, forming a much bediamonded and be- 
starred hedge on both sides, bent at their approach and 
straightened itself again like a field of shimmering wheat 
after a gust of breeze has passed over it. 

In this fashion, and always preceded by the ministe- 
rial torch-bearers, the bride and groom performed cir- 
cuit after circuit of the great hall, she between two 
Kings or Princes, he between two Queens or Princesses, 
a rather harassing and tiring ceremony, but during 
which the honors were severely and justly divided — the 
Courts of Berlin, Vienna, and St. Petersburg being the 
only palaces nowadays where scrupulous exactitude is 
still observed in such matters, and where no " passe- 
droits " are ever allowed. 

At last the end came. The long-suffering twelve were 
relieved of their torches by twelve gorgeously attired 
pages, and the now slowly paling luminaries were used 
to light the newly married couple to their apartments. 

During all this time an army of Court lackeys and 
small officials were arranging with a great deal of method 
and quickness the endless array of wedding gifts to be 
displayed on the morrow " en grand gala." 

It seemed for the time being as if chaos, a brilliant 
one, had resumed its reign, or as if all the great shops of 

79 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

the universe had been sacked and their contents poured 
into the Royal palace. 

Here stood a collection of marvellous Dresden-china 
vases, big enough to hold AH Baba and his forty advent- 
urous companions, there some superb bronzes were 
huddled together for company against rolls upon rolls 
of priceless rugs and embroideries, creeping like a tide 
of rainbow hues to where richly framed pictures and ex- 
quisite engravings lay prostrate. 

Here again a mountain of '' ecrins " revealed their blaz- 
ing contents of diamonds, pearls, rubies, emeralds, and 
sapphires, where they were piled upon cushions of deep 
purple, while half a hundred pieces of gold and silver 
plate gleamed beneath the flame of the countless 
candelabra wherewith the place was illuminated "<i gi- 
orno." 

All night through the work proceeded, and at dawn 
order had emerged triumphantly from chaos, and the 
splendid gifts sent by the cities small and big of the 
German Confederation, as well as those presented by 
family and friends, were artistically disposed amid flow- 
ers and palms to the entire satisfaction of the most 
exacting taskmaster. 

The extraordinary rapidity and perfection with which 
all these difficult manoeuvres were accomplished and 
brought in time to so gratifying an end, were to be 
placed to the credit of a system inaugurated then by 
that arch-organizer Prince William, and which to this 
day is scrupulously observed upon any occasion of cere- 
mony at the Court of Berlin. 

On what we call in Brittany the " Retour de Noces " 
namely, the "post-wedding-day," a magnificent banquet 
was given at the palace, to which were bidden all the 
Royalties and Princes then in Berlin, the Diplomatic 
Corps and Special Envoys, the Ministers of State, the 

80 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Knights of the Black Eagle, and a host of other great 
dignitaries. 

The White-Hall resounded with the sound of many- 
voices, German, English, French, Russian, Italian, and 
Spanish, mingling in the perfume-laden air. A mile of 
torches lighted the guests to the palace, which was 
itself a blaze of glory, while the " Weisse-Saal " was 
displayed to the utmost advantage by means of tall 
' ' torcheres ' ' burning rosily in capricious tongues of 
shimmering flame. 

This exquisite illumination exhibited vividly the great, 
purple Throne, raising upon this background with clear 
distinctness the arms of the Reigning House, encircled 
by their bold motto, and Prince William, totally un- 
moved in appearance, several times fixed his gleaming 
blue eyes upon the spot where they stood out in sharp 
rehef. There was yet observable at such moments a 
curious tightening of the lips, which gave the impres- 
sion that his soul was just then diffused through the 
net-work of his nervous system, and that every individ- 
ual nerve was thrilling with strongly repressed emotion. 

The grand hall was hedged with immense palms and 
exotics, and the harmonious twitter of stringed instru- 
ments accompanied " en sourdine " the gay chatter of the 
brilliant throng. The festive board itself was regally 
sumptuous, beneath its load of precious plate and 
priceless crystal and china; graceful garlands of white 
and pink orchids meandering from one cluster of myr- 
tle, orange, and snowy roses to the other. 

Pages clad in scarlet and gold, with jewelled rapiers 
at their side — for they were all of gentle birth — and scar- 
let-plumed cavalier hats slung upon their shoulders by 
silken cords, attended and served the Emperor, Em- 
press, Prince and Princess William, and their Royal 
guests. 

8i 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

The bride wore a rich satin gown veiled by precious 
lace, and a priceless necklace of diamonds, matching 
those of the diadem crowning her shapely head, and, 
although every eye was riveted upon her during most 
of the time, she did not appear to be the least shy, self- 
conscious, or embarrassed. This was not a woman 
to be overlooked, for there was nothing insignificant 
about her; on the contrary, she would have been dis- 
tinguished anywhere and in any company. Her keen, 
proud, but yet soft glance, her low but clear, pene- 
trating voice — one of those voices that without being 
raised in the slightest degree are audible in every 
corner of a room — the mixture of simplicity and dignity 
which so greatly characterized her every gesture, proved 
superabundantly that this was indeed a woman born 
to be an Empress. 

The banquet of that night, the gala opera by which 
it was followed, were gone through by all with unflag- 
ging spirit. Everything had been superbly done, for 
the former traditions of the House of Hohenzollern were 
not merely equalled but greatly surpassed, and, as 
nothing succeeds like success, Princess William, with 
such a debut as a stepping-stone, would have entered 
at one bound into the good graces of her young hus- 
band's future subjects, had it not been for the conster- 
nation caused in certain breasts by this enthusiastic 
reception, a consternation which begot an emphatic 
and strangely ungenerous desire to crush her down as 
speedily as possible. 

At Court, as in all places where ambitions flourish in 
a favorable soil, new arrivals have not always a very good 
time of it; it is every one for himself and the devil take 
the hindmost — as the good old sporting phrase goes! 
All the more is it so when private jealousies are rampant, 
for then mischief is surely brewing. Princess William's 

8? 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

individuality was too marked and too rare, she was 
too uncommon in her grave, kindly way, too refreshing 
in her total lack of affectation amid the artificial graces 
of our machine-made age, not to arouse such hostile 
feelings. And, as a matter of fact, she did. 

On March 2d, the young couple made their entry 
into Potsdam, where they were henceforth to live. 
They were both very happy, and looked joyfully for- 
ward to the pleasure of organizing their palace and 
Household — modest ones it is true, but complete, and 
possessing the supreme charm of being all their own — a 
home to found and lovingly build up with the all-pre- 
vailing German " gemilthlichkeit'' — a word for which I can 
find no English equivalent, unfortunately, expressing, 
as it does, the charm of the kindly atmosphere of loving 
companionship and mutual dependence which pervades 
the homes of the Fatherland, whether of the peasant or 
the Prince. And especially they had each other. 

The young husband, just turned twenty - three, no 
longer brooded in his loneliness. His " Doriiroschcn " 
had come, and, behold, her presence supplied the element 
needed to make life acceptable to him whatever might 
come to pass. Every subject, all subjects, subjects the 
most discrepant, seemed to possess now one common 
property, that of leading him straight to her. Out- 
wardly, to all seeming, assurance was the key-note of 
the Prince's conduct, though when alone his assurance 
had a knack of giving place to a very real diffidence; 
but his marriage made all the difference in the world 
in this respect, for she, the fair young wife, could see no 
flaws in her idol; he was her hero, and all that he did or 
thought seemed to her so faultless that it was next to 
impossible for him to relapse into his gloomy fits, or, if 
he did, she soon dispelled the doubting, torturing 
moods. Her air of perfect ease, of perfect confidence, 

83 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

accelerated his recovery in that direction, while her 
light, gay laughter would have brightened the darkest 
spot on earth. His nervousness, his excitability, soon 
entirely left him, and the atmosphere around him seemed 
to become permeated with a curious satisfaction, a feel- 
ing that he had now little left to wish for, that to be 
with her in that sweet and complete companionship 
for which he had yearned, was enough. 

His consciousness of her always beside him filled him 
with a delight that seemed absolutely ultimate. Each 
hour, each minute, that hurried on its way, was a mutu- 
al experience drawing them closer and closer together, 
helping to complete that marvellous understanding 
which has never ceased growing and perfecting itself 
now for more than twenty-three years. 

They lived a very retired, very quiet existence at first, 
spending many an evening alone at home reading, chat- 
ting, singing old German duets and " Volksliedcr," or 
else simply sitting side by side in front of the bright, 
dancing fire in silent communion, contemplating the 
fantastic flames, pale rose with dark-red shadows, hiss- 
ing softly against the scintillant background of consum- 
ing wood, enjoying the same pleasantness of environ- 
ment — such trifles making up the restful "tout ensem- 
ble" he had been unconsciously needing all along. 

And now one would have expected them to spend the 
remainder of their natural days in thankful tranquillity ; 
but no. Fate holds no such peace, especially where Kings 
are concerned, and, although they did not know it, their 
horizon was even then gradually becoming obscured by 
the portentous clouds of a storm, which, had it not been 
for the slender, graceful woman ever at his side, her 
sympathetic eyes bright with encouragement, he would 
have found much difficulty in withstanding. 

In the month of May following their marriage Prince 

84 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

and Princess William went to Vienna to be present at 
the wedding of Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria, and 
the contrast between the bride of two months and the 
bride that was to be was so marked, so disheartening 
for those who loved "Rudi," and had his welfare at 
heart, that it seemed a positive cruelty to the prospec- 
tive bridegroom to have made it possible for him to 
compare the happiness of his friend Prince William 
with the barrenness of feeling his own -fiancee in- 
spired. 

Princess Augusta-Victoria was tall, but Stephanie 
seemed a good deal taller, thanks to her sinewy, bony 
leanness — '' Ses coudes sont des aiguilles a tricotei:'" 
Empress Elizabeth used to say. Her spare figure, spare 
and angular, held unswervingly to the perpendicular, 
and looked as if entirely constructed of nothing but 
bone and tendon. The German Princess's yellow hair 
curling in delicately soft tendrils gleaming like gold, her 
pink-and-white camellia-like skin, and her deep-blue 
eyes, full of laughter at one moment, glowing with sym- 
pathy, with affection, with love, at others, ever change- 
ful and fascinating, were delightful to behold, and made, 
alas! yet more conspicuous the dull, dun complexion, the 
lustreless tresses bound closely and ungraciously to the 
unduly elongated head, and the expressionless eyes of 
the Belgian. The very clothes of the two Royal girls 
still further emphasized their extreme unlikeness: 
Augusta -Victoria's exquisitely fitting gowns, simple 
but "chic" in their effect, showing her careful and 
dainty in every detail; Stephanie's magnificent apparel, 
somehow or other, in spite of all efforts on the part 
of maids and "couturiers " and of her own love of glitter 
and display, proclaiming her by the mere way in which 
she wore it a woman who never gave two thoughts 
to that delicious "recherche" and refinement which 

8s 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

make even a Parisian " grisette'' appear well dressed in 
her plain black frock and immaculate " dessous." 

I remember very distinctly how on one occasion Em- 
press Elizabeth watched these two conversing together; 
at first vaguely, but by-and-by with a strange, continued 
absorption, her lovely face assuming gradually an almost 
austere expression in its sorrowful foreboding. What 
they were talking about it was impossible to hear across 
the great drawing-room, but it was perfectly plain that 
the young wife of the Prussian Heir Presumptive was 
in one of her gayest and most delightful moods, her 
hand resting for a moment on Stephanie's pointed 
shoulder, and again and again gently patting it, her 
beaming face speaking louder than words. 

"You don't know how blissful married life is!" One 
could not but be certain that that was what she was 
saying, and it must have been a longish story she had 
to tell, as well as a gleeful one, but apparently, also, the 
manner in which it was received was not pleasing, for 
her face, at first all aglow with pleasure, slowly sobered, 
darkened, and expressed disapprobation, till finally all 
animation and trustfulness had vanished from its mo- 
bile features. 

The watching Empress's beautiful countenance had 
paled, her magnificent eyes were graver than I had ever 
seen them, and her glance was heavy with significance 
as it rested on the group and lingered almost reproach- 
fully upon the long, cold, colorless silhouette of her 
daughter-in-law that was to be. There were sad and 
angry things in that look, mingled with pain and al- 
most terror. At last she drew a deep, shuddering breath. 
"God is angry with the Habsburgs," she murmured. 
"Ah! my poor Rudi, my poor boy, what a fate!" 

Her pupils had widened, as they had a way of doing 
when she was deeply moved, her voice was hushed to a 

86 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

whisper. It would have been merciful could an angel 
have drawn an impenetrable curtain before those eyes 
so cruelly far-seeing, which read something as awful 
as God's anger in the union of her beloved son to 
the woman who was to wreck his life. Surely that mo- 
ment was unforgettable, and equally unforgettable the 
weary, dismayed sound of the Empress's voice as she 
said, half aloud, to herself: "I am sick with pity for 
Rudi. Why could not he also have found a woman he 
could have loved and who would have loved him, a 
woman like that charming girl yonder ? This is as bad 
as suicide!" 

It must have been, since it led to it! 

There are in the lives of most human beings passing 
moments or words which leave a deep and lasting 
impression upon the mental retina, and which hold fast 
to the very sinews of our souls as if they had caught 
somewhere in an inner wheel and had persistently 
clung there ever since. Of this nature was the scene 
I have just described, for it was instantaneously graven 
upon my memory, never to leave it from that daj'' forth. 

Princess William created a most lastingly delightful 
impression at the Court of Vienna. She was not one 
who looked upon her exalted rank as an opportunity 
to turn her back to the responsibilities of life and to 
hasten away to a round of perpetual amusement, for, 
like her husband, she took a vivid interest in the serious 
and responsible side of a Ruler's existence. She stayed 
but a short time in the gay Austrian capital on that 
particular occasion, but, nevertheless, she succeeded in 
endearing herself to everybody, from the Emperor and 
Empress downward, old and young alike quickly suc- 
cumbing to her charm of manner and radiant presence. 

Her vocation as the very embodiment of the perfect 
wife and mother shone already then through her; her 

87 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

calm, quiet ways, her easily aroused sympathy, swiftly 
deepening to compassion wherever it was needed, her 
sensible manner of viewing charitably the reason- 
defying recklessness of most lives, and the hand she ever 
readily held out when help was required, were irresisti- 
ble, and wherever she went there arose a chorus of spon- 
taneous homage and praise. 

Many still remember the first "fete" given by the 
young couple at their Palace of Potsdam, and where 
not only the Court but all the proud German aristoc- 
racy appeared. 

An accomplished hostess, who had rapidly acquired 
a meticulous knowledge of all the observances pre- 
scribed by rigid "etiquette," the young Princess moved 
among her guests, clad in some light, shimmering fabric, 
which billowed as she walked, like deliciously tinted 
clouds, her eyes shining with that love -light which 
frankly said to all who might care to know: 

"I love as much as it is humanly possible to love; I 
am proud of my lover; I love him with tenderness and 
with worship, with truthfulness and with wonder, with 
all I have and with all I am!" 

It is astonishing, too, how very becoming legitimate 
love is — perchance because it is so rare — how it brings 
out the grace and the purity and the very best of a 
woman's refreshingly unspoiled soul! 

Certain it was that the young Princess was created to 
tread in the paths of peace where'er she went. Her 
gentle and sober gestures, her calm, soft speech said as 
much ; nor was she a worrying woman, but one endowed 
with a strong, cheery heart, which could, if necessary, 
brave wind, weather, or mishap with unchangeable phi- 
losophy; for circumstances alter us less than we think, 
and if we are of a bright, hopeful temperament, bright 
and hopeful we shall be through all. If misanthropic 

88 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

and sullen, no happiness, be it ever so great, no pros- 
perity, be it ever so glorious, can drive these congenital 
defects away. 

This first "fete" given by the newly married pair 
classed the Princess at once as a hostess " di primo car- 
tello." The supper which followed it was irreproachable, 
and served with an elegance and refinement to which 
Berlinese were not then accustomed, and, watching her, 
one might have believed that she had made an especial 
study of how to live and how to please, whereas she 
simply was at heart an artist, and, moreover, had been 
at a good school since her marriage, for the taste of 
Prince William was extremely fastidious, and even at 
that early period of his life he was already past-master 
of "I' art de Men recevoir." 

No less did he understand, however, that of living 
quietly like any ordinary citizen, enjoying to the utmost 
the pleasures of a harmonious home. 

Every morning, soon after sunrise, the Royal lovers 
walked briskly in the Potsdam park, after a "tete-a- 
tete" breakfast in a cosey room overlooking the gardens. 
They found an ever-renewed pleasure in the beauty of 
the summer weather, in the wreaths of "eglantine" 
embowering the hedges, and in the clean, vigorous ten- 
drils of the wild convolvulus starred with the delicate 
pearl and pale pink of its almond-scented blossoms. 

Something in that young unfolding of open-air love- 
liness filled their hearts with exquisite pleasure, for how 
like all this was to the unfolding of the great tenderness 
which had brought them together. Like true " cam- 
pagnards" they gazed at the hay standing high in the 
distant fields, at the deep emerald-hued pastures where 
sleek cattle grazed peacefully, and they drank in with 
lips parted by smiles the luxuriant breezes laden with 
the wholesome perfume of the " renouveau." 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Extraordinarily pleasant did the present and the fut- 
ure seem to them when thus alone ; yet there was neither 
vainglory nor selfishness in their delight, for they val- 
ued what was to be theirs by right, not for its gran- 
deur, but for the joy and great possibilities which it 
added to their fate. 

In the afternoon, when the Prince returned from the 
parade-ground, where he had tirelessly and industrious- 
ly exercised his men, he was in the habit of taking his 
" Dornroschen" for a drive along the flowery country 
lanes, skirting big ponds and tiny lakelets dotted with 
swans and water-lilies, which repeated themselves on 
the clear surface as upon a mirror; and like children they 
laughed together at the frightened scurrying from their 
approach of moor-hen and water-fowl into the reed and 
forget-me-not grown river-edge. 

After the evening meal, of which they partook early, 
while still the elongated sun-rays streamed in through 
the western windows of the palace and made the 
crystal and silver table appointments sparkle and scin- 
tillate again, they would stroll out arm in arm to watch 
the pink fleeces of cloud follow the gold and crimson 
of the sunset to the horizon line, their eyes fixed upon 
the paling blue of the sky, their happy young faces 
fanned by the caress of the evening wind as the great, 
round silver disk of the moon solemnly arose behind the 
distant dark masses of verdure beyond the park. 

Often they lingered and lingered until it grew to be 
deep dusk beneath the trees and the bright green of 
the lawns faded to soft, fleecy gray, the smoke of his 
cigarette mixing with the penetrating odors of reseda 
and heliotrope which greeted the coming night, com- 
pletely satisfied with each other and seeking no other 
pleasures than the simple joy of this peaceful solitude. 

Another spring found them just as happy and light- 

90 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

hearted when alone, and with one blessing greater than 
all the others filling the immediate future with a sort 
of awed sense of joyful anticipation. 

Again the Palace of Potsdam became bowered in 
tender green and surrounded by the indescribable scent 
of the rejuvenated season, again a thousand liquid gems 
sparkled on the flowers and the velvety turf, while at 
sunrise the birds trilled among the lilacs and labur- 
nums, hushing into silence the amorous solo of the night- 
ingale which had lasted throughout the short dark hours. 
On the 6th of May, 1882, while the lightest of breezes 
ruffled the waters of the Havel, scarcely shattering the 
mirrored shadows of the trees leaning over it, the Prin- 
cess's arms closed upon the cause of all this expectancy, 
hope, and happiness. 

Her pride and gratitude were strung to their highest 
pitch as she gazed from her beautiful boy to the radiant 
face of his young father, who, with sunshine in his heart 
and tears of pure delight in his eyes, bent tenderly over 
her, looking as if he had drunk of some splendor and 
was visibly giving it out. 

Half an hour before, the whole world had seemed to 
Prince William blackened by fears reared to such a 
height that they had blotted the very sun from the sky, 
but now life for him had recaptured all its former brill- 
iancy, with inexpressibly much added unto it by the 
event of that glorious day. 

There was a new lightness and joy about his heart 
which had not been there before, and when he called out 
from a window to his grandfather, waiting tremulously 
on the terrace below, the now historical words, ''Papa, 
cin JungeV (Papa, a boy!) the jubilance of his own 
voice must have startled him. 

This new-found bliss simmered in his mind as he went 
through his routine military duties on those unforgetta- 
1 91 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

ble May days which followed, every now and then a little 
biibble of exuberance breaking on the surface in a smile 
of beaming pride which by no means surprised his men. 

He was just then in a mood, so he himself remarked, 
to gallop about the country, taking every ditch and 
fence as he went, and it was clear that for once in a way 
he was almost thrown off his balance. He could neither 
sit, nor stand, nor lie quiet, but every moment went 
off on aimless excursions to the young mother's room or 
the spick-and-span brand-new nursery where his son 
and heir reigned supreme; and when enjoined by the 
dragooning nurses to walk very softly for fear of awak- 
ening His Majesty the Babe, he returned with the same 
haste to his own quarters, from whence he would pres- 
ently emerge on some new errand quite as deliciously 
fussy and aimless as the others had been. 

He felt, too, a continual uneasiness — at the back of his 
mind — for the safety of his two darlings ; but, as it all 
came out, he might have spared himself the pains, for 
nobody could have been healthier and stronger and 
brighter than they, and never did a baby a few days 
old afford his youthful father such cause for perfect sat- 
isfaction. His discoveries about the little one were 
every hour more remarkable, really quite epoch-mak- 
ing, and everybody else was forced to become resigned 
— that is, all excepting baby's mamma — to count as 
nothing just then with as good a grace as possible. 

Halcyon days those for Princess William, whose hopes 
and exceeding reward they embodied. She talked but 
little, as was her wont when she felt anything very deep- 
ly, but just went on doing simple little unselfish things 
in her usual way, sympathizing with her husband's ex- 
travagantly high spirits and listening to his irrepressible 
laugh over the most indifferent trivialities, as to the 
sweetest music and also a compliment to herself. 

92 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Soon she was quite well again and able to accompany 
her little son in his airings beneath the delicate green 
foliage of the trees, walking up and down the grassy 
alleys diapered by the clean, golden sunshine where it 
filtered through the branches; pulling long pieces of 
feathery grasses from their sheaths to gently tickle now 
and again one of the tiny firsts — like crumpled rose-leaves 
— resting on the snowy mantle, or the satiny fat little 
neck just beneath the lace hood of His Imperial and 
Royal Highness Prince Frederick-Wilhelm-Victor-Au- 
guste-Ernest of Hohenzollern, her much-beloved first- 
born. 



CHAPTER V 

When Princess Augusta-Victoria of Schleswig-Hol- 
stein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg married Prince William 
of Prussia, she was proclaimed by the Court and by the 
great world at Berlin to be the most fortunate of girls, 
since, although virtually dowerless and the daughter 
of a House no longer regnant, she had secured the finest 
"parti" in Europe. 

From the very first this extravagant ' ' luck ' ' was 
dinned into her ears with what may be described as 
exaggerated persistency and superfluous emphasis; con- 
descension and a lofty sort of patronage being among 
the mildest means employed to keep perpetually before 
her eyes the fact that she had been blessed far beyond 
her deserts. 

Indeed, one of the reasons why the young couple 
kept as much as they could to themselves and avoided, 
whenever it was possible, appearing at Court, was be- 
cause hot-headed, warm-hearted Prince WiUiam — then 
little more than a boy — was keenly alive to the unfriend- 
ly manner in which his wife's every act and utterance 
was criticised, and because he found it almost beyond 
his power to refrain from giving rein to the cruel resent- 
ment excited in his heart, by the glaring disposition dis- 
played there to cavil at her demeanor, her dress, nay 
even at her most charming qualities. 

To be sure, the kindly old Emperor and his aged Con- 
sort, Empress Augusta, never departed from the affec- 
tionate consideration which they made a point of evinc- 

94 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

ing on every occasion towards their granddaughter-in- 
law, but they had no opportunity to take up the cudgels 
in her behalf, since even the most virulent of her detract- 
ors studiously avoided saying or doing anything which 
might attract the attention and arouse the indignation 
of Their Majesties, and thus furnish a pretext to the 
Prince for invoking the intervention of his Imperial 
grandparents. 

Thoroughly conscious, however, of the depreciatory 
atmosphere which prevailed at Court, especially in quar- 
ters where the Princess should have found sympathy 
and support, the young people, too proud to complain, 
met this difficult situation with dignified silence and 
ever-increasing reserve; and though Prince Bismarck, 
for political purposes of his own, attempted to envenom 
matters still further, and urged Their Royal Highnesses 
to publicly resent these affronts, his advice remained 
unheeded. 

Indeed, the Princess saw at once that the great Chan- 
cellor wished to use her as a weapon in his manoeuvres 
against his own foes, and to inveigle her into a conflict 
of many years' standing which was a secret to nobody. 
She therefore wisely determined to keep aloof from his 
schemes, declined to comply with his desires, and bore 
the brunt of his extreme displeasure and sarcastic vitu- 
perations with a quiet courage and a patience seldom to 
be met with in the weaker sex, rather than augment by 
one iota the many worries by which her beloved hus- 
band was beset. 

For Prince Bismarck the marriage of the Heir Pre- 
sumptive had had two purposes: one was to reconcile 
the Schleswig-Holsteiners to their country's incorpora- 
tion with the Kingdom of Prussia, and the other to 
make of the young bride — whom he fondly imagined to 
be very pliable, shy, and easily managed — a scourge 

95 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

wherewith to whip his personal enemies. In this last 
project, as I have just said, he did not succeed, and 
nothing could equal his stupefaction and dismay when 
he found that this young and unsophisticated girl, 
brought up in the simplest fashion and quite out of 
the world, whose acquaintance with Court etiquette, 
forms, and ceremonies was at first of the scantiest, not 
only faced him with unfaltering bravery, but gave him 
to understand, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that 
she would not lend her hand to his machinations, no 
matter what humiliations and vexations she might be 
called upon to endure. 

I heard him myself declare, shortly after one of his 
encounters with her, that for a woman to have brains 
was a serious blemish, and that he wished from his heart 
he could forbid them all the use of such dangerous 
explosives. 

"Women should do as they are told," he continued. 
"Politics should be as uninteresting and unattractive 
to them as the commotions which take place at the bot- 
tom of the sea; they should not even know the names 
of the rival parties in the Reichstag, but confine their 
attention to their kitchens and still-rooms, and to the 
rearing of their children, until they are bidden to use 
their accursed 'feminine influence' in some good cause, 
and then only when told how to go about it." 

This tirade ended in a storm of denunciation, which I 
do not propose to transcribe here, and I remember that 
at the time I sincerely pitied the woman, whatever her 
rank, who was forced to listen often to such an enuncia- 
tion of principles. 

Still, the Chancellor had certainly a long score of 
grudges against the Princesses of the House of Hohen- 
zollern, and it is scarcely to be wondered at that his 
Machiavellian mind should have evolved the plan above 

96 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

mentioned, or that his favorite motto — ''Petticoats only 
conduce to the ruin of statecraft ' ' — should at that period 
have seemed to him singularly apposite. 

His greatest dread was that Princess William should 
ally herself with the Empress, who was one of the prin- 
cipal opponents of his policy, and he at once took ef- 
fectual means to keep the two Royal ladies as far apart 
as possible. 

Empress Augusta was and will remain one of the most 
pathetic and interesting figures of modern history, and 
the masterful Chancellor did much to embitter the last 
five-and-twenty years of her life by his savage sarcasms, 
and the uncompromising animosity that he displayed 
towards her. 

"May she be happy in the great, restless world which 
she is about to enter!" was Goethe's prayer when he 
took leave of her, his favorite pupil, on the eve of her 
departure from Saxe -Weimar for Berlin as a bride. 

Alas! the wish was not fulfilled! The Court of Fred- 
erick William III. was not the place whither to journey 
in search of gayety or happiness, and the fair young 
Princess was ill at ease there always. 

With advancing years her health broke down so com- 
pletely that when her husband ascended the throne, in 
1 86 1, she was a confirmed invalid, suffering at times tort- 
ures from an internal malady, which she bore with ex- 
emplary courage. Her devotion to good works, her 
boundless charity, her tenderness of heart, were infinite, 
and even after age and illness had made havoc of her 
beauty, her winning smile, and the intense look of her 
magnificently sparkling eyes captivated all those who 
came in contact with her. 

Suffering seemed to have brought out nothing but 
good in her, and when she became Queen of Prussia 
she never wearied of ameliorating the lot of her Con- 

97 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

sort's subjects. She worked harder than any Florence 
Nightingale for the success of the Geneva Convention 
and the establishment of the Red Cross Society, and in 
the wars of the sixties, as well as in that of 1870-71, 
she personally organized hospitals for the wounded, 
whom she daily visited, and upon whom she lavished 
all the comforts and even luxuries which a long purse 
can afford. 

Her sympathies for France were imputed to her in 
certain quarters as a crime, and yet they were but the 
outcome of a generous-hearted pity towards a fallen 
foe. She it was who besought the King to delay the 
bombardment of Paris, and this solicitude for the 
wretched women and children, the sick and wounded 
starving within its walls, Bismarck never forgave her, 
accusing her openly of placing obstacles in his way, and 
of endeavoring to weaken his influence with the Mon- 
arch to whom he was devoted body and soul. 

This cultured, sensitive, and much - misunderstood 
Queen would have been the best of guides, philosophers, 
and friends for her grandson's bride, but that the wily 
Chancellor would not allow! He succeeded in a measure 
to keep them apart, and during the first few years of 
her married life Augusta-Victoria was exceedingly lonely. 

Her only friend in Berlin, practically speaking, was 
then the American -bom Countess Waldersee, whose 
first husband. Prince Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein 
(he had abandoned his royal rank and dignities for the 
Austrian nobiliary title of Fuerst Noer in order to be 
able to marry her) had been Princess William's uncle. 

There has been a good deal of nonsense written about 
Countess Waldersee having been the "Egeria" of Will- 
iam II. at the beginning of his reign, but it is those 
only who know nothing of Germany's present Ruler 
who are inclined to believe such idle gossip. For he is 

98 



•%: 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

emphatically not a man to be led or swayed by any one; 
least of all has he ever permitted any woman, old or 
young, beautiful or the reverse, to influence his political 
conduct or the action of his government. 

True, Countess Waldersee is a woman of quite re- 
markable cleverness, and was in her youth extremely 
good-looking; moreover, neither Emperor William nor 
Empress Augusta - Victoria has ever forgotten the af- 
fection and motherly tenderness which she displayed 
towards her sometimes so forlorn young kinswoman, 
during those first years at Potsdam, and they treat her 
as a much-valued relative. But her alleged boundless 
influence over the Heir Presumptive, and subsequently 
over the Emperor, never existed except in endless and 
very theatrical press reports, dubbing her "the elderly 
' Egeria' of a hot-headed and immature ' Numa Pom- 
pi I ms.' " 

Any person who knew Prince William in those days 
will be ready to confess that even then the whole char- 
acter of his face showed him to be anything but a pliable 
or weak man. The squareness of his under jaw, the firm- 
ness of his lips, the dark-blue gleam of his penetrating 
eyes, and especially the impressive sternness of his whole 
expression, when not smiling, all spoke of invincible 
determination, pride, dignity, and absolute self-posses- 
sion — nay, his voice alone, " schiierdig," abrupt and ex- 
traordinarily energetic, convinced even the most dull 
that this was a Prince destined to leave his impress 
upon the history of the world. 

Matters became still more unpleasant for the Prince 
and Princess soon after the birth of their first baby, and 
the forbidding clouds, which had until then emitted but 
low rumblings of thunder and of storm, gathered with 
increased menace in their sky, and so sombrely at times 
as to almost obscure it altogether. 

99 

LofC. 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

The christening feast itself was not characterized by- 
much geniahty, in spite of the efforts made by Crown 
Prince Rudolph of Austria and Grand Duke Sergius of 
Russia to lighten the visibly unsocial spirits of most 
of those present. Emperor William the Great alone 
beamed with joy as he held the beautiful baby in his 
old arms before the font, and was in such high spirits 
that he certainly did not so much as notice the dreary 
attitude of those surrounding him. 

There was, still then, the suggestion of the wild-rose 
in the face of Princess William, with its delicate, fleeting 
shades of pink and white, but the sHm strength and 
dignity of her limbs and carriage, the graver expression 
of her eyes, already betrayed the fact that she was now 
burdened with heavy cares and was prepared to bear 
them squarely and uncomplainingly. 

She manifestly avoided the common error of expect- 
ing too much from the world. For the present, she 
seemed content with avoiding complications and cen- 
sure, and she said but little, her attitude being one of 
kindly and courteous reserve. 

At any rate, those who were not her friends soon per- 
ceived that there was more in her than they expected 
to find — which was a distinctly unpleasant surprise. 
The perfect simplicity and gentleness of her whole at- 
titude seemed to say, much more plainly than words 
could have done: "I am of no importance; do not mis- 
understand my position. It is not my business to pre- 
vent events or to make history; so, you see, you need 
not be so bitterly incensed!" 

Ah, yes, but there were many who, nevertheless, 
weighed her importance with extreme nicety and watch- 
ed her with alarmed attention, for it was plain that she 
was the spouse "par excellence" for her impulsive, en- 
thusiastic husband, a steady helper in need ; and though 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

she strictly confined herself to Prince Bismarck's virt- 
uous programme, and was, above all things, a perfect 
wife and mother, yet her personality was beginning to 
loom inconveniently, even upon that distinguished states- 
man's horizon, as one whose sensible and single-minded 
advice was more likely to commend itself than his own 
to Germany's future Emperor. 

She was just as sweet-tempered and gracious as of 
yore, and quite as patient. She never made an ill- 
natured remark or did an ill-natured thing, but her love 
for her brilliant husband had become tenfold greater; 
his will was now hers ; her only wish was to ably second 
him in anything he undertook, to please and satisfy 
him in every respect, to bend all her energies to his ser- 
vice, and it was plain that should any one ever venture 
to attack him, stealthily or otherwise, she had it in her 
to defend him with unflinching courage and resolution. 
Truly, quiet as she was, she had a character of her own, 
and plenty of poise and discernment, and to be so guarded 
at her age and in her position showed a fund of reso- 
lution sufficient to give much food for reflection to the 
great Chancellor. 

"Her head will be so much turned as to ruin any 
sense there may be in it," had been one of the chari- 
table verdicts pronounced at the time of her marriage 
at the Court of Berlin. Yet no such thing had taken 
place or was likely to do so. 

She continued to abstain from all thoughts of self. 
Her husband never saw her sweet face without its 
cheering smile, come when he would; he never heard a 
complaint, or even a peevish word or an exacting de- 
mand upon his overburdened time. 

Her power was too womanly — in the highest accepta- 
tion of the word — to be ever obtrusive, for she was con- 
tent to play no role at all, but to go about softening, 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

healing, guarding, stirring up the better feehngs of 
everybody with whom she came in contact, while her 
rectitude and fairness of judgment proved on more 
than one occasion an infinite blessing to the man she so 
passionately loves. 

Emperor William has often complained that he is the 
most misunderstood Monarch in Europe — which is per- 
fectly true; and it may be added with equal veracity 
that his Consort shares this misrepresentation, as she 
has shared all his joys and all his sorrows during the 
past twenty-five years, for it is the fashion, even in 
Germany, to speak of her as a model wife and mother 
of the prosaic " Hansfrau" type, and nothing more; 
whereas, in spite of her own modest ways, all kindness 
and goodness, there is much in her that no one ever 
suspects excepting her immediate " entourage," much 
that raises her high above even so lofty a standard, 
and makes her indeed the ideal of a great Ruler's life- 
companion. 

What her husband thinks of her may be gathered 
from his constant reference to "meine Frati" — words 
to which he gives an expression which eloquently trans- 
lates the fact that she is above all the rest of the world 
in his eyes, and that he, at any rate, has never for a sin- 
gle instant been blind to her true value. 

The young couple continued to live at Potsdam, 
moving in the autumn from the " Marjuorpalast" to 
the " Stadtschloss," and in the spring from the " Stadt- 
schloss" to the " M armor palast," with clock-work regu- 
larity, but they always preferred the " M armor palast," 
for these two loved nature, and to them the fresh air, 
blue sky, and green trees were charms sufficient in 
themselves to enchant. 

The flowers, too! What a joy they were to the Prin- 
cess, when in April and May the lanes and woods 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

around Potsdam became blue with wild violets and pink 
with hawthorn. Lightly she would dive between the 
stems of the hazel and alder bushes in search of hare- 
bells, Solomon's -seal, buttercups, streaked sorrel, or 
delicate wreaths of clematis. 

These spring blossoms were suitable companions for 
her, reminding her, as they did, of her dear old forest- 
girthed home, and they afforded her many hours of con- 
tentment when the Prince — still always to her ' ' le 
Prince Channmit" — was detained longer than usual by 
his military duties. 

All the annoyances and vexations to which she was 
subjected invariably fled at his approach, and she be- 
came once more full of spirit and merriment, gladsome 
and blithe as a child as soon as his hand touched hers. 

He had changed a good deal, both mentally and physi- 
cally, since his marriage; he looked older than his age 
now, and his deportment, striking countenance, and 
half-repelling, half -inviting manner were more effective 
with strangers than his former absolute reticence, for 
there was something irresistible in the privilege of at- 
tracting the attention of one whose demeanor was in 
general distant. 

When he once began to talk — eager, decided, original, 
brilliant — he fairly fascinated his auditors; and when he 
kept silent everybody watched ardently for a renewal 
of favor. 

General homage was, however, no pleasure to him; he 
accepted it as the due of a Hohenzollern, and would 
naturally have missed it had it not been laid at his 
feet, but he never stretched so much as a finger to beck- 
on it to him or to render it more personal. 

In 1883, 18S4, and 1887 the little Princes Eitel-Fred- 
erick, Adalbert, and August were added to the Pots- 
dam nurseries, and to the expression on the young 

103 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

mother's face a pensive gentleness, almost mournful at 
times, a slightly care-worn look around the eyes and 
mouth, even while she smiled; for many anxieties beset 
her with regard to the disappointments and numerous 
trials her husband had to bear. 

Her first-born was a constant joy and solace to her. 
He was a remarkably bright child, his delicate features, 
pure, fair skin, and soft, dark -blue eyes — like his father's 
— sparkling with intelligence, made up a "tout ensemble" 
of which any mother mught well be proud, and the two 
were almost inseparable during those first six 3^ears. 

Prince William had on several occasions been forced 
to undertake official trips to Russia; for instance, in 
1885, to bear his Imperial grandfather's congratula- 
tions to the Czar upon the coming of age of the Heir- 
Apparent; and in September, 1886, in order to be 
present at the grand military manoeuvres near Brest- 
Litovsk. Moreover, it was part of his duties as Heir- 
Presumptive to visit, in turn, the various German 
Courts, to appear at the military manoeuvres in Ger- 
many, and if one adds to this the hunting-parties which 
he superintended in the aged Emperor's stead, and his 
own absorbing work as a conscientious and ardent 
soldier, it will readily be seen why he was obHged to 
frequently absent himself from his dear home. 

Malevolent gossip, it goes without saying, hastened to 
proclaim that he was "fatigue de cueillir la marguerite 
et de filer le parf ait-amour"' in his sylvan retreat of Pots- 
dam, and assailed with insidious slander the singularly 
blameless married life of the man whom Court and 
people so perversely continued to wilfully misunder- 
stand. 

There were many ungenerous references made to the 
" flightiness " of the Hohenzollern Princes in the press, 
of every color and nationaHty, and these malignant in- 

104 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

nuendoes, first whispered in society but ere long printed 
in cold type, came to be widely believed both at home 
and abroad. 

It is possible that Prince William might have remain- 
ed quite indifferent to these calumnies, knowing as he 
did how completely he could rely upon his wife's trust- 
ful love, had not matters been carried to the point of 
coupling with his the names of certain political " intri- 
gantes.'' This naturally irritated him to the verge of 
exasperation; and when some of those nearest to him 
ventured to criticise what they may have believed to 
have been indiscretions on his part, he, conscious of 
his innocence and of the injustice of the charges, gave 
expression to his resentment at their attempt to ques- 
tion or control his private life, pointed out that he 
was no longer a boy to be chided, but a grown man, 
and expressed so clearly his indignation that more bad 
blood was created and the situation rendered yet more 
strained. 

Even the gentle heart of Princess William was at last 
roused to extreme anger and to a sensation of acute 
grief, for her ardent affections were fastened upon her 
husband with a vehemence which her placid and calm 
demeanor never quite betrayed before others ; and when 
she saw him thus unjustly criticised and accused her 
suffering was intense, and, judging that amends were 
due to him for this crying unfairness, she could hardly 
do enough to prove to him that he was indeed the one 
object of her adoration. 

There is something mexpressibly touching and en- 
viable in such a devotion, in such a power to see no 
flaw in one's idol, and it is only very pure and lofty 
beings who can attain to this, the very pinnacle of sub- 
lime love. 

The Princess had made but little progress in intimacy 

105 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

with her husband's family, since each day had revealed 
more plainly to her how much too unimportant she 
was ever to be one of them. 

ChilHng in condescending courtesy, they remained 
gravely and coldly polite, but no more, even when at 
their best, with the exception of the Emperor and Em- 
press, who were always kindness itself, and had become 
very fond of her, the old Monarch showing positive 
paternal solicitude where she was concerned; but this 
Prince William could not persuade his wife to believe 
a great compliment to herself, because, according to 
her invariable custom, she continued to attribute to 
him everything good that befell her. 

The gravest imputation against her was still that 
she was not "clever," and did not possess the varied ac- 
complishments which so greatly enhanced the fame of 
the elder Hohenzollern ladies, whose conversation was 
frequently conducted in such scientific terms that to the 
ordinary mortal it sounded like an unknown tongue, 
and suggested to most a lamentable lack of simplicity. 

Persons of so much resource and of such abnormally 
cultivated minds are, of course, admirable, but they 
sometimes have a weakness for making a target of any 
one not up to their mark in the "ologies" — a practice 
which occasionally becomes more mortifying to them- 
selves than to their victims. 

Until March, 1887, however, although life went on 
for Prince and Princess William monotonously, beset 
with continual small warfares and conflicts that thwart- 
ed their best and most generous intentions, it was still 
so taken up with hard work for both, each in his and 
her particular realm of usefulness, that they had scarce- 
ly opportunity to wish for better times, or to wonder 
that all real intimacy with most other members of their 
House should have so strangely remained in abeyance. 

106 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Anxious and sad days were, nevertheless, in store 
for them all, and soon events occurred which in a few 
short months not only altered the fate of Germany, 
but changed the entire political plane of Europe. 

On March 22d, Emperor William the Great celebrated 
his ninetieth birthday, surrounded by his entire family. 
The ceremony was unforgettable in its simple grandeur. 
The palace presented a very beautiful picture, decorated 
throughout, as it was, with palms, ferns, and flowers, 
and filled with a joyous crowd of well-wishers, while the 
hero of the feast was himself the most amazing and 
wonderful sight to be encountered there. Healthy, 
strong, smiling, and happier in his extreme old age 
than he had ever been in his youth, above all things 
kind and chivalrous, he preserved a fresh and almost 
rosy mien quite wonderful to behold. 

"You young people have no real stamina," he was 
fond of saying, with a cheery laugh. "It is the fault 
of modern training. In my time children were fed on 
bread and milk and underdone meats, and were never 
allowed to ' stuff ' nor to sleep in heated rooms, the 
result being that we were never ill, nor knew that we 
had livers or lungs or digestions — or hearts either, for 
the matter of that, excepting as a sentimental figure 
of speech!" 

This was heard in somewhat shamefaced silence, for 
was not this extraordinary nonagenarian a living ex- 
ample of his theories, he who had so evergreen a vital- 
ity, so great and unimpaired a sagacity, was so hale 
and hearty, so unselfish, good-natured, and cheerful, and 
who, in one word, compared so favorably with the 
modern fussy, nervous, dyspeptic victims of eternal 
haste, worry, overfeeding, and other "fin de siccle" 
evils? 

This year of 1887 had begun under more clement 

8 107 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

auspices for the little family at Potsdam. The four 
sturdy boys occupying the Princely nurseries gave their 
parents no cause for anxiety, and their nurses, clad in 
the picturesque Wendish " Tracht" of the Spree-Wald, 
were one of the sights of the little town nestling on the 
Havel shore; but in the spring came without any 
warning one of those sudden changes whereby the 
destiny of peoples and of individuals is made to rock 
like a storm - tossed vessel in mid - ocean, and which 
cause so wide-spread a sensation that total strangers, 
even when belonging to alien races, are unstrung there- 
by, and that the remembrance of it lingers with them 
for years. 

The young couple were looking hopefully and eager- 
ly in the face of the future when a brutal and horrible 
transformation came over it; the smile it had shown 
flickered away, and it abruptly became almost grotesque 
in its grimacing distortion, as if their sanguine anticipa- 
tion had outstayed the welcome its power could give 
them. 

What were then the enmities which had sprung up 
and thriven like weeds in the inner circle of the House 
of Hohenzollern ? What were mere differences of opin- 
ion or even the coldness which had gradually arisen 
between the older and the younger members thereof, 
in comparison to the evil that was now overtaking them 
all with rapid, ghostly strides — this dreadful thing, full 
of hidden tortures and despair, voiceless and mysteri- 
ous at first, and suggesting formless terrors? Nothing! 
For past sorrows and disappointments were to be now 
swallowed up in a gulf of such stormy blackness that 
they would appear slight and trivial by contrast. 

Mere justice to William II. demands that what really 
took place in 1887-88, at the Court of Berlin, and what 
he then underwent, should be stated here, and for the 

108 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

first time in true colors, since the view taken in America 
and in England of those events has been the foundation 
of so cruel a misconception of his character. 

I have already given some idea how bitterly Prince 
William resented, not only the lack of sympathy which 
had been his portion, but the treatment to which his 
dear wife had been subjected. Not only was it painfully 
evident to him at every turn that she would never be 
granted the position to which her rank and status, as 
well as her personal sweetness and ceaseless endeavors 
to please, gave her so full a title, but the unreasonable 
dislike of which she was the victim increased with the 
passage of time, instead of diminishing, so that when he 
thought of this requital of her noble, self-sacrificing de- 
votion to himself and to all those who belonged to him 
he trembled with suppressed rage. 

Indeed, continual fault-finding, often, it is true, ex- 
pressed merely by looks and contemptuous and pitying 
attitudes, had done its grievous work, and had fanned 
into flame the feelings of resentment with which the 
Prince's soul teemed. Something within him had be- 
come detached, aloof, and this something had more and 
more seemed to be barring the path leading from his 
own home to that of his childhood, closing the way to 
all tender feeling, to all real intimacy! 

During these years Prince William had been beset 
with many difficulties and disappointments, and had 
faced them always courageously; sometimes coldly and 
patiently; sometimes desperately, recklessly resolving 
to tear to pieces the veil of half-illusions, so ragged now, 
alas! which still hung between him and the truth. A 
sudden impulse often seized him to go down into the 
innermost recesses of his troubles, and to discover the 
why and wherefore of all his misery. His natural sen- 
sitiveness had frequently set him on the defensive, even 

109 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

with those obviously his friends, and, as he hated any 
sort of scene, he 'had fallen into the habit of avoiding 
even the mere possibility of one, by cutting certain 
topics out of the conversation with a sort of angry 
vehemence which amazed and disquieted his hearers. 
His way of pronouncing certain names, the bitterness 
of his accent, led one to believe him inspired by down- 
right hatred, when, of a truth, it was nothing more than 
sheer exasperation, for there were hours in his life then 
when he seemed to confront the very void in which the 
world was spinning. 

Such was the state of affairs when he was brutally in- 
formed that his father was suffering from cancer of the 
larynx, which meant, to all intents and purposes, that 
within a space of months easily computed ^he himself 
would become Heir Apparent to the Throne, power, and 
dignities of a grandfather whose span of years had al- 
ready far outstretched the limits of human life ; and out 
of the darkness there came to Prince William cries that 
were as those of helpless, storm-driven creatures being 
hurled towards terrible abysses — those of his own peo- 
ple, whose frantic hands seemed raised towards him in 
wild gestures at once of appeal and of rejection. 

The pity of it all seized hold upon him; for when 
placed face to face with this appalling tragedy he real- 
ized that he stood between two beings tottering on the 
edge of the grave, one heavily burdened with honors 
and with years, the other tortured by one of mankind's 
most frightful ills, both needing his help, his assistance, 
his energy, his superb youth, and each utterly uncon- 
scious of the good or the evil he could work. 

But, first of all, he knew that he had to rescue some- 
thing of which neither his father nor his grandfather 
could now retain full mastery, namely, the car of State, 
the reins of which were falling from the heart-broken 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

old Emperor's hands, and dragged loosely and peril- 
ously upon the ground, threatening to bring about at 
any moment some catastrophe. But any honest at- 
tempt to grasp them meant not only further and yet 
more cruel misrepresentation, but also an open strug- 
gle with Bismarck, who would only make way for him 
and side with him under certain conditions which it 
might or might not be possible to accept. 

Bismarck had always dreaded the moment when the 
Crown Prince would ascend the Throne. He knew that 
Frederick had in advance declared himself in favor of 
"constitutional methods without any reserve,'' and con- 
stitutional methods and parliamentarism were the pet 
aversion of the Chancellor, who realized that their 
strict application would render impossible both his 
policy and his continuance in office. 

He, moreover, greatly distrusted the Crown Prince, 
and not only distrusted, but hated the Crown Prince's 
most confidential advisers. One of his reasons for this 
was the close association of Frederick and of those con- 
fidential advisers with the ultra-Liberal party in Ger- 
many, composed of his (Bismarck's) bitterest oppo- 
nents; while another was the Crown Prince's intimacy 
with the English Court, the Chancellor declaring that for 
more than a hundred years the influence of the British 
Guelph had been steadily pitted against that of the 
Prussian Hohenzollern throughout Germany. 

Bismarck made no secret of the fact that he regarded 
Frederick as a sentimental visionary, whose political 
ideas, picturesque, richly colored, and romantic, were 
what he described as "empty Utopias" — in one word, 
he gave it thoroughly to be understood that he did not 
regard Frederick as likely to prove a safe Emperor for 
reconstructed Germany. 

There can be no doubt that the Crown Prince's asso- 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

ciation with radicals and their ideals lent some color 
in the eyes of a very large element of the German peo- 
ple to Bismarck's fears, and it is equally certain that he 
communicated his gloomy forebodings, with his all-con- 
quering eloquence, both to his Imperial master and to 
Prince William, drawing them both little by little into 
what was then regarded as the party opposed to the 
Heir Apparent; with the result that a growing, though 
tacit, political estrangement widened every day the 
distance between the grandfather and grandson on the 
one side, the Crown Prince and his chosen few on the 
other. 

When, therefore. Prince Bismarck saw his opportu- 
nity of eliminating Frederick from every chance of suc- 
cession to the Crown, he jumped at it almost ferociously. 

The Crown Prince, who had been sent to Ems for a 
"bad cold with bronchial complications," had returned 
in a state of complete depression. He knew that he 
was suffering from cancer, which meant the crumbling 
of all his hopes, of all his desires and ambitions; and 
there were few things which his excited imagination 
boggled at, things which he was certain would happen 
to him as a natural consequence of his malady. 

He was not only in the mood to comprehend all the 
horrors of his fate, biit, being of an expansive and im- 
pressionable temperament, he succumbed to a fit of 
profound melancholia, induced, perchance, almost as 
much by regrets for his past years of inaction and ex- 
clusion from governmental labors and interests, and the 
impossibility of his now ever putting his pet schemes 
into execution, as, strictly speaking, by the disease 
which was so barbarously clutching him by the throat. 

The affection and tender sympathy with which his 
son received him was at one and the same time a balm 
and a wound to him, for it confirmed him in the idea 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

that he was indeed doomed. Knowing that Prince 
William belonged to a party distinctly opposed to his 
own; that a wasting invalid like himself could, in the 
opinion of no sane man, be a proper Ruler for an armed 
and beleaguered nation like Germany; realizing that he 
could no longer be a match for the radical agitators 
whom, in his kindness of heart, he had allowed to swarm 
about him; unwilling, also, to jeopardize the fortunes 
of the Empire and of the Dynasty, he suddenly declared 
to his old father, to his son, and to Prince Bismarck, 
that he now did not desire to reign, if he chanced to 
survive his father, and was resigned to renounce his 
rights of succession to the Throne in favor of Prince 
William. 

This was the opportunity already mentioned, and 
Bismarck immediately pounced upon it. In spite of 
the young Prince's eager protestations, the Iron Chan- 
cellor at once reduced the Crown Prince's declaration to 
writing, obtained his signature thereto, and deposited 
the valuable document in the private Hohenzollern 
Archives, where it still remains. 

It goes without saying that nothing of all this was 
made public — indeed, hardly a word has to this day been 
printed about it in Germany, and the secret would never 
have been revealed at all had it not been for the fact 
that in a moment of extreme weakness Frederick him- 
self allowed it to escape him. This unfortunate admis- 
sion was the true beginning of one of the most palpitat- 
ing dramas ever enacted around a Crown. 

So far Bismarck had succeeded almost beyond his 
hopes, but when he set himself, as he did now, to obtain 
the sanction and assistance of Prince William in all that 
he was decided to undertake in order to attain his aim 
— relying, of course, upon his masterful will and the in- 
fluence, almost amounting to fascination, which the as- 

113 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

sociation of a lifetime had made so strong — he reckoned 
for once entirely without his host. 

The blow for the young man had been a terrible one. 
He realized with torturing suddenness how greatly he 
had really loved his father all the time that the cold- 
ness and indifference fostered by others had reigned be- 
tween them, all the time it had seemed as if they prac- 
tically ignored each other, and had wellnigh reached the 
Rubicon of absolute antagonism. 

And now it was all over ! In a few weeks, a few months 
at most, death would have severed, with its cold, clammy, 
relentless fingers, the bonds which indeed bound father 
and son together so strongly, leaving no chance for a 
better understanding betweeru them, no possibility of 
more affectionate mutual relations. 

The thought was an agonizing one, which made the 
Prince's stern lips quiver and his eyes fill. It was in- 
tolerable, and it seemed very strange to him that the 
world could still revolve peacefully when it bore so heavy 
a burden of sorrows. Yet his strength soon reasserted 
itself, and brought him back to calm, rigid determina- 
tion. His father's life must be saved; he, the son, would 
sweep every obstacle, every impossibility away; he 
would take command, dare all, and, come what may, 
would rescue him from this terrible evil already eating 
into the tissues of his body and drawing near to the 
innermost citadel of vitality. 

But a circumstance which he had not foreseen broke 
in, coldly and cruelly, upon his resolve, a circumstance 
that brought upon him amazement, confusion, and de- 
spair, cost him the life which he had struggled to pre- 
serve, and, as a superfoetation of evils, laid him bare to 
the absurd reproach of being unfilial — a reproach pub- 
licly levelled at him from henceforth throughout the 
civilized world. 

114 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

This circumstance was that, while he had just then 
no other aim, no other desire than to prolong his father's 
da3'-s and to save him from the slow, torturing, but in- 
evitable death by suffocation to which he was doomed, 
unless operated upon at once — as the German surgeons 
called into consultation advised — there were other and 
less single-minded interests than his at work, fighting, 
so to speak, over the stricken Crown Prince, and subor- 
dinating the medical issues of the case to their own self- 
ish political considerations. 

Thus Bismarck favored the operation because he held 
that it would constitute an admission of the fact that 
Frederick was really afflicted with cancer, in which 
event he could hold him to his written renunciation of 
the Crown. He also believed in the possibility of its 
leaving the illustrious patient voiceless — an infirmity 
which, according to certain clauses of the Family Stat- 
utes of the Reigning House of Prussia, was sufficient 
to debar him from the Throne; and even the remote 
chance, at that moment wellnigh an impossibility — 
but then Bismarck was no surgeon — of Frederick's dy- 
ing under the knife, received this provident statesman's 
consideration. 

On the other hand, there were in the opposite camp 
persons who were convinced that, even if stricken with 
cancer the Crown Prince was likely to survive his father, 
and since, by occupying the Throne, were it but for a few 
months, he would enable them to reach the summit 
of their ambitions, they were, therefore, opposed tooth 
and nail to the operation, on account of the above- 
mentioned opportunities it might afford to the Chan- 
cellor to keep Frederick from the Crown. Both parties 
were unanimous, however, on one point, which was to 
keep the real state of the Crown Prince a profound se- 
cret as long as possible. 

"5 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Prince William, however, always in the habit of look- 
ing truth in the face — to most of us there is nothing 
more hateful than to follow such a course — refused ab- 
solutely to turn his back upon it, or even to gloze it 
over, judging rightly and justly that in so grave and 
portentous a matter personal interests had no title to 
consideration at the cost of a good man's life. 

It is well known that William II. has an absolute hor- 
ror of falsehood and that he crushes liars with an angry 
vehemence which nothing else can arouse in him (indeed, 
he has often been heard to say, " I've been hurt by the 
truth many a time, but not so much as by its contemp- 
tible opposite!"), and when he found that a trick was 
going to be played upon the credulous, his rage and in- 
dignation knew no bounds; but his wish to deal fairly 
and squarely with the situation was naturally at once 
attributed to the sordid desire of snatching the Throne 
from the hands of his father — for his grandfather could 
clearly live but little longer. 

Bismarck's plots and counterplots, his plans and 
counterplans, expounded as was his wont when in dead 
earnest, by slaying an adverse opinion with one word, 
or holding it to the glaring light of ridicule, which exposed 
its meagre, paltry skeleton with singular ferocity, were 
but an added exasperation to a man who, like Prince 
William, was for the first time diving deep into the 
most terrible of human tragedies. 

What fiery gleams of anger, what clash as of weapons, 
there must have been in the interviews between these 
two powerful personalities who had ceased to under- 
stand one another, the one cynical — he who had seen 
too much to allow himself the luxury of illusions — the 
other in a most exalted mental condition, impassioned, 
full of heat, courage, and purity of motive; Bismarck 
considering everything in life strictly in relation to his 

1x6 




WHAT FIERY GLEAMS OF ANGER 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

will and projects, appreciating everything simply as it 
affected them; Prince William, pouring out his generous 
soul in a vain effort to convince his interlocutor. 

Yes! the situation was certainly acutely dramatic, 
but some followed it that were yet more painfully so; 
for this was only the beginning of a time so dark that 
it was only in flashes that Prince William saw what was 
to be done, or clearly distinguished the full extent of 
the task he had before him, and its extraordinary thank- 
lessness — he who had suffered and toiled so incessantly 
in prevision of this day of his coming into power, now 
so cruelly near, though he had deemed it so far distant. 

It was indeed only the beginning of the bitterest 
pages of his life. 



CHAPTER VI 

Bitter waters were indeed surrounding Prince Will- 
iam, and problems confronted him which were to be 
faced as unflinchingly as a good soldier faces the enemy. 

He knew it to be his duty, now that the old Emperor's 
wonderfully preserved strength had given way beneath 
the stress of his paternal anguish, to be before him in 
knowledge, so that if he appealed to him in a Ruler's 
difficulty, he might be able to help him better than 
with mere words. But Bismarck was always at the 
aged Monarch's side, and endorsed the young Prince's 
excellent counsel only when it happened to coincide with 
his own. 

The Chancellor spoke with the authority and weight 
of an old and valued adviser who had always followed 
up his dictates with successes, he presented with a skill 
born of long experience the inestimable advantages of 
his projects, and urged the Emperor along a line which 
the Prince often disapproved; for Bismarck had this 
much in common with the Crown-Prince's party, that the 
saving of a life seemed of no moment compared to that 
greater question of the rival political interests involved. 

The aspect of everything had changed. Hitherto, 
the Prussian Royal House had been held up as a model 
of patriarchal bliss and perfection; it had been like a 
sturdy tree growing vigorously and happily, pushing its 
way to the air and the sun with an almost violent dis- 
regard of its neighbors, sufficient unto itself in every 
respect. 

ii8 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

During the last few weeks a wild wind had been blow- 
ing upon it from the valley of the shadow of death, had 
shaken all joy from it, and left it denuded of all beauty 
in its sinister aspect of surly, suffering barrenness. The 
sky was heavy with clouds, leaving gashes of blackness 
and broken patches of hopeless gray, threatening and 
mysterious, behind them as they rolled ominously along. 

The fine, handsome, good-hearted Crown Prince who 
had presented so heroic an appearance on horseback in 
all out-of-door pageants, and who had so loved to wrap 
himself in his General's cloak as in a King's mantle, 
had suddenly dwindled, as it were, to the figure of a 
pitiful invalid. 

He had grown old and sad and weary, all in a few 
weeks ; his great back curved outward between his thin 
shoulders, with that pathetic stoop of those who are 
trying to cheat the keenly searching glance of Pallida 
Mors. The gray atmosphere of an incurable malady 
enwrapped him like a shroud; there was something fixed, 
irreparable, in the languor of his every pose, in the hope- 
lessness of his expression, and the little wrinkles near 
his eyes, the deeper lines by the nose and mouth, half 
concealed by the fast-whitening gold of the mustache, 
spelled despair. 

The doom hanging over him had already accentuated 
his features — his cheek-bones looked more prominent, 
his eyes more hollow, and beneath them was a faint 
purple tinge — while he walked already rather feebly, 
bending forward as if to avoid the future, and his 
whole aspect was piteous, compressed, and miserably 
incapable. 

To Prince William this spectacle was heart-breaking. 
Whenever he approached his stricken father, a wave of 
sorrowful tenderness swept over him, and he longed to 
put his strong young arm about him, to shield the weak- 

119 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

ness which was so apparent with his own buoyant 
strength. But he felt that this would only bring nearer 
to the wretched man the fulness of his misfortune, and 
so he followed the safest course, which was to appear 
indifferent. 

Such a repression of strong feeling had the natural 
result of making him look exceedingly grim, almost 
angry, and as if actually irritated, whereas he passion- 
ately desired to tell him all he felt, how profound and 
unaltered were his love and sympathy, and what was 
the extent of his distress, a distress furious almost in 
its intensity. 

To save his father's life was William's one wish — 
feverish, restless, extreme, bringing him to the verge of 
losing all self-control, incessant, over-powering; and 
when the distinguished German surgeons declared again, 
after another minute examination, that an immediate 
operation offered the only chance of recovery, the Prince 
more than ever fixed his gaze upon that one ray of 
light, that dazzling beam of hope piercing like a spear 
the dark wretchedness which had engulfed him. 

It was then that the most sinister part of the drama 
to which I have already alluded, and which was to last 
more than a year, began. It was then that Prince 
WilHam, terribly, passionately overwrought, and strug- 
gling to maintain his self-possession in the face of fright- 
ful odds, assumed an authority of manner he had never 
before displayed. 

Those who were near him at that time noticed that 
all softness, all phability, had vanished; his looks, the 
very sound of his voice, became adamantine; for, al- 
though he had been suspecting something wrong, yet 
in the wildest flight of his imagination he never could 
have brought himself to believe that the resolution of 
those who for purposes of their own desired that Fred- 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

erick should reign, " coiite que coute,'' was such as to 
banish all scruples from their souls. 

The knowledge he gained then was sufficient to un- 
hinge a brain less steady than his. It thrust him into 
hell, pure and simple, and there were moments when he 
thought he could no longer stand the strain it put upon 
him^. He advocated his opinions with a burning ear- 
nestness which startled his grandfather, and even Bis- 
marck, who also upheld the necessity of an operation, 
though, as shown in the previous chapter, on entirely 
different grounds. 

From the moment when the secret abdication of Fred- 
erick had become known to a very few, these few had de- 
termined to oppose this private arrangement by every 
means that could be devised, and were ready to attempt 
every conceivable form of resistance. At the period of 
which I speak, they were casting about here, there, and 
everywhere for means with which to defeat the now 
grimly powerful son, who was so tenacious in his life- 
saving endeavor. 

In those days the knife was still looked upon with 
dread, and the risks of an operation popularly considered 
as being far more endangering to the patient than the 
evil for which it was applied, a circumstance of which 
they made precious good use. 

I have held in my hand an enlarged model of the 
Crown Prince's larynx, as it appeared at the time of the 
first serious examination. Below the vocal cord from 
the left side of the organ — or, to be exact, from the left 
inner surface of the thyroid cartilage, projected a tiny, 
rounded point, an innocent-looking elevation of the 
mucous membrane, nothing more. 

Operation at such an early stage of a malignant 
growth is a comparatively easy matter to modern lar- 
yngological surger3% and can be done without impair- 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

ment of the power of speech, consisting essentially in 
penetrating the cartilages and scraping ofif the tumor 
with a sharp-edged instrument known as a Volkmann 
spoon. 

Even at a later stage, when the cartilage beneath 
the soft tissues is involved, the more serious removal of 
one-half of the larynx is often successfully performed, 
and, especially since " the functional results as regards 
breathing and the preservation of the voice are often 
satisfactory," this should always be done when the 
patient's physical condition and the extent of the 
growth admits of it; for even if a cure does not result, 
life will be at least greatly prolonged. 

Since the Royal patient's general health was, all things 
considered, excellent, and his physical strength very 
much above the average, there could be no question as 
to the advisability of having an operation performed 
at once. So thought Prince William, so thought the 
poor old Emperor now too, so thought every sensible 
and just being, including the great surgical authorities 
whose advice had been sought; but there were others 
who would not allow the risk to be taken, who, noticing 
how greatly the wretched condition of his only son had 
reacted upon the aged Emperor, and how unlikely it 
was that the latter's life would be much further pro- 
longed, desired only one thing, and that was that their 
champion should win — were it by a few lengths only — 
this ghastly race against death, of which a Crown was 
to be the prize. 

No wonder Prince William was seized with sickening 
disgust ! 

Were his efforts to prove useless ? Would he ever 
be able to accomplish that which he had set himself to 
do ? Would he ever see his father out in the air and 
the sun again, fearlessly facing the light of the open 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

heavens, a healed man, or would he be compelled to 
watch him sink slowly into the grave, tortured and 
breathless, denied even the right of yielding to his 
agony, since to the last he must remain upright and 
smihng, as behooves the Heir to a great Throne or the 
Ruler of a great people. 

The thought was maddening, and Prince William 
must then have cruelly realized the fact that political 
ambition can create monsters, beings to whom all that 
is healthy, normal, natural, becomes as naught, and 
who, like criminals, work in darkness, and flee the truth 
as if it were a consuming fire. 

It was at that moment when the son was thinking of 
his father's distress, almost as if it had been his own, 
when he thought of his sufferings as if his own flesh 
were being tortured, as well as his spirit, that Dr. Morell 
Mackenzie, London's best known throat specialist, ar- 
rived upon the scene, summoned by a secret and urgent 
messenger. 

The British and the Prussians were once more face 
to face! 

Crown Prince Frederick had pledged himself solemnly 
to relinquish his rights to the Throne "if" he proved to 
be afflicted with a mortal disease — a possibility which his 
party could not therefore afford to admit. 

Even extirpated, a cancer is a cancer, and such ac- 
cidents as recurrence have been heard of; so there was 
no cancer ! 

The German surgeons, great and undeniable as was 
their skill and their fame, were, nevertheless, human, 
which means liable to err! They had declared that 
they were dealing with a malignant growth, but their 
diagnosis was not necessarily infallible ! Why not 
then submit the Royal patient's case to another au- 
thority, a foreign one this time, who could not be in 
9 123 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

any way influenced by or even interested in German 
politics ? 

The late Sir Morell Mackenzie — 17 Harley Street, 
London — was an eminent practitioner; he had made a 
speciality of diseases of the larynx; he had acquired, 
not only in England, but all over the Continent, a repu- 
tation fully justified by his science, and also by his ex- 
traordinarily developed intelligence and depth of thought. 
He was, moreover, a man of taste, besides a savant; an 
artist by instinct, as well as a wielder of scalpel or 
lancet. Attractive in manner, pleasing in conversation, 
of refined and diplomatic bearing. Sir Morell Mackenzie 
— 17 Harley Street, London — was the man "par excel- 
lence'' to enter palaces gracefully, to approach the bed- 
side of some illustrious invalid with a smile upon his 
closely shaven lips, which put to flight the mere idea of 
suffering and of death. 

From the top of his shrewd, sleek head to the tips of 
his exquisitely varnished patent-leather boots, he was 
perfect, absolutely perfect, and none could question his 
fitness to live on terms of positive intimacy with Em- 
perors, Kings, and Princesses. 

Even his motto " Luceo Non Uro" (I give light, I do 
not burn) was encouraging. "I give light! I do not 
burn!" — how soothing to the anxious relations crowd- 
ing around a beloved patient, to know that to this won- 
derful surgeon there was no such fatal thing as obscu- 
rity! How delightful for the patient himself to realize 
that here was a man who, if he followed his own precepts 
— which he undoubtedly always did — would refrain from 
all those violent means so dear to the majority of his 
" confreres "\ "I do not burn! nor cut! nor slice! nor 
hurt in any way, shape, or fashion! My delicate fingers 
will barely touch Your Royal Highness, will scarcely 
palpate Your Imperial Majesty, for I take no liberties 

124 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

with the august bodies entrusted to my care, and I 
know soothe- words for the bitterest trials!" 

So spake for him, Sir Morell Mackenzie's every look 
and gesture. 

Introduced to a conference of German physicians and 
surgeons, who gave, I fear, but poor attention to the 
polish of their honest, square-toed boots, and who dif- 
fused, perchance, in the palatial atmosphere of the Berlin- 
Schloss rather a faint reminiscence of iodoform and of 
musty, ponderous, medical tomes, than of otto of roses 
and opopanax, Sir Morell's whole dainty soul revolted ! 

He had been called there as a distinguished colleague, 
who was to take henceforth the leading part in the man- 
agement of the Crown Prince's case; they humbly sub- 
mitted to him their opinion and the proofs thereof, their 
homely faces glowing the while with interest, their eager 
eyes, all or almost all, ghttering behind serviceable spec- 
tacles of the plainest make, their square heads bent 
forward in respectful attention and all-embracing in- 
terest. 

He, the Great Man of 17 Harley Street, London, calm 
and gentle as usual, looked like a being of vastly diffei- 
ent mould — surely the ordinary brand of surgeon's clay 
had not been used in his manufacture — his manner was 
staid and definite, his slightest action remarkable for its 
finished deliberation; he drew out his handkerchief or 
slipped off his supremely well-fitting gloves as if he had 
previously thought the matter out from all its various 
points of view, and had decided for all time and eternity 
how he meant to do it. 

Professor von Bergman's intentness on such trifles as 
cancers really seemed for the moment quite unpardon- 
ably out of place, and the Teutonic energy of his col- 
leagues rather oppressive. Indeed, there was a sugges- 
tion of "camaraderie" looming up in all this, a definite 

125 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

attempt to draw near, which a man of Sir Morell's im- 
mense importance could not dream of encouraging. 

The professor — I was told this by an eye-witness — 
stood with his feet turned in more than usual and look- 
ing still full of friendliness, but as if gradually becoming 
uneasy; another of the surgeons appeared more pugna- 
cious and ready to defend Germany, and her entire 
medical corps, against any one who dared to attack 
them, but most especially against that superior person 
from over the seas who glanced superciliously at him 
now and again with raised eyebrows, for after each sen- 
tence pronounced by Sir Morell he closed his own 
mouth with a vicious smack, like a man who is attempt- 
ing to keep his temper in, by wholly artificial means. 

It was, indeed, a pleasant consultation, from which 
the German surgeons emerged, with the agreeable sen- 
sation that all the firm and settled facts they had ac- 
cumulated about their profession since their student 
days had been tumbled to pieces at one blow, without 
noise or uproar, but without any regard either for truth 
or for their feelings. Professor von Bergman looked as 
if a personal injury had been done to him, and the pug- 
nacious consultant whistled mechanically the tune of 
''Die Wacht am Rhein," interrupting himself every two 
minutes to mutter through his clinched teeth personal 
opinions quite beside the question. 

Sir Morell, during the greater portion of the debate, 
that is, when not himself speaking, had looked as utter- 
ly detached and uninterested as if listening to people 
talking an unknown language. When his opponents 
ceased describing the Crown Prince's symptoms, he 
turned towards them with the air of a man who has 
done exactly the right thing in exactly the right man- 
ner, and declared in bland, calmly refined accents that 
he never accepted as true anything which he had not 

126 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

investigated and proved to his own satisfaction to be 
true, owing this, he added, smilingly, to the sincerity 
on which he prided himself beyond anything else. 

The German surgeons should have been overwhelmed 
with confusion by this magnificent speech, and yet they 
suddenly looked at him with eyes so expressive that he 
came as near getting disconcerted as he had ever been 
in his life. No doubt, as he met their gaze, he suddenly 
realized that these good people of the square-toed ex- 
tremities and inelegant attire were more clear-sighted 
and forceful than he had imagined, and that they would 
not be quite so easily dealt with as he had been led to 
believe. 

All the knowledge about the case he had acquired 
previously at second-hand surely slipped away from him 
at this instant as water slips out of a basket, and had it 
not been for the "nerve," which he certainly possessed, 
he might, perchance, have fied from the pitiableness of 
it all. Instead of which he daringly assumed, from then 
on to the bitter end, an urbanely menacing attitude, 
which he alone could have invented, and which was 
destined to often defeat their fiercest bluntness. 

When the German surgeons grasped the situation and 
comprehended, later on, the tactics of their delicious op- 
ponent, they were filled with a fury which most emphat- 
ically must have been forgiven on High, and at once. 

Sir Morell, they saw it clearly now, desired to show 
them how simple and unscientific they were, and to 
try and make them feel self-conscious in their ignorance. 
He had laid plans, calmly and deUberately, in the cer- 
tainty of his own superiority ; it was therefore their most 
sacred duty to shatter those plans, which, they knew, 
were life-endangering to their illustrious patient, and 
to utterly rout Sir Morell! They did not, unfortunately, 
quite understand as yet that they were far less astute 

127 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

than the Great Man from Harley Street, who, feeling 
assured of the vigorous support of his alHes — the Crown- 
Prince's party — attacked them from every side before 
they were prepared for the battle. 

Sir Morell, who was very determined — another of 
his distinctive and superfine qualities — having, as he 
thought, filled the enemy with confusion in the first en- 
gagement, lost no time in endeavoring to persuade at 
least one German celebrity that he was ready not only 
to offer, but also to give undeniable proof of his opin- 
ion, and so set to work with impressive solemnity and 
without wasting a moment. 

On the day following his arrival in Berlin, and again 
a couple of weeks later, he submitted to Professor von 
Virchow for microscopical examination specimens ex- 
tracted from the patient's throat, and it cannot be 
gainsaid that this excellent man reported that he dis- 
covered nothing to ''excite the suspicion of wider and 
graver disease than a benign growth.'' 

Professor von Bergman felt too hostile, too wronged, 
to reply at once to this extraordinary statement. His 
relations with those of the antagonistic clan, with whom 
he came in contact, were now frigidly polite and as per- 
functory as he could make them, but they were soon 
to discover in him a character of singular dogmatism 
and pertinacity, and when he became aware that the 
English Doctor was telling to all whom it might or 
might not concern that Doctor von Bergman was 
''guilty of absolute brutality and of a quite ttnprofessional 
roughness of treatment" with regard to his Imperial 
patient, hell broke loose in good earnest in the shape of 
a succession of unhappy scenes and undignified contro- 
versies, during the course of which ponderous paving- 
stones were thrown from one camp into the other, and 
terrible accusations were exchanged. 

128 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Professor von Virchow, standing midway between 
the two defended positions, received for his share the 
bruising wind of most of those brutal, ill-directed, and 
ill- aimed missiles, and when he attempted to vindicate 
himself by asserting, microscope in hand, that the "speci- 
mens" sent to him definitely proved the innocuous char- 
acter of the Crown Prince's malady, his colleagues did not 
hesitate to tell him before witnesses that Dr. Mackenzie 
"had purposely drawn out with his forceps pieces of the 
healthy right vocal cord in order to triumphantly sustain 
his diagnosis, since a man of his capability could not in- 
advertently mistake one side of the larynx for the other, 
or confound an inflamed and cancerous growth with per- 
fectly normal tissues." 

The atmosphere around the unfortunate Crown Prince 
grew, meanwhile, more and more stormy, and as he wear- 
ily turned the last pages of this inexplicable book of 
life, which he had still found so interesting a few short 
months before, he sincerely envied the lot of the sorriest 
beggar in the gutters of his father's capital. 

A black melancholy, a languid drowsiness overcame 
him at times, through which faintly echoed the sound 
of the battle raging about his miserable fate; his heart 
ached with longing for the past, for the future — which 
he had planned out for himself and which now lay in 
sordid atoms at his feet. 

At other times all his faculties became singularly 
acute, his brain grew alert to think, his heart to feel 
keenly; his eyes, suddenly glittering as with fever, roved 
everywhere, observing swiftly everything that passed, 
darting from one person to the other as if eagerly de- 
sirous to read their innermost thoughts, while a dreadful 
expression of anguish dwelt on his pallid, sharpened 
features, and his nervously trembling hands clasped and 
unclasped quite unconsciously, as if he was forcibly hold- 

129 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

ing himself back from succumbing to some frantic out- 
break of passion or of despair. 

Those who watched him grew exhausted in mind and 
body as they gazed at this constant uneasiness and dis- 
tress, sometimes already aggravated by spells of short 
and almost convulsive breathing, which added a pang 
of agony to his torment and during which he stared 
fixedly at them as if dumbly claiming more sympathy, 
more help, in his great need! 

His party, burning with the desire to remove him 
from Berlin, and from the reach of those too perspicacious 
German surgeons who stubbornly held to their opinion 
that he was suffering from cancer, suddenly conceived 
the amazing idea of taking as a pretext the celebration 
of Queen Victoria's Jubilee, where her noble and brill- 
iant son-in-law was certainly entitled and expected to 
appear. 

A sly and exceedingly jocose device, certainly; novel 
and surprising, if you will, under the circumstances, but 
which naturally maddened Prince William when he 
heard of it, since he instantly realized the motives by 
which it was prompted. His physical and mental hor- 
ror of the whole damnable plan increased by leaps and 
bounds; his very imagination began to shrink, as if it 
longed to escape to some region distant from all those 
atrocious plots and comedies, in which there was some- 
thing so dreadfully unnatural — he acknowledged this 
later himself. 

Desperately he pleaded with the Emperor, entreating 
him to forbid so grewsome a thing — pleaded, stormed, 
implored, threatened, but Bismarck was always there 
between them, undermining his influence, paralyzing 
his efforts, maiming his best arguments by a violent and 
immoderate espousal of his cause, which left the poor 
trembling old Monarch absolutely crushed, and rendered 

130 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

thereby more inclined to hearken to the insidious per- 
suasions of those who spoke of hope and of recovery 
for his only son. 

Of course, there were many only too ready and eager 
to declare, that Prince William's love of display and 
ardent desire to everlastingly hold the first place, dic- 
tated his conduct in attempting to prevent his father 
from appearing in the Jubilee procession. " He is afraid 
of being cast into the shade;" this was the charitable 
verdict of those always disposed to place an evil con- 
struction upon his motives, and since such injustice has 
nothing particularly soothing about it, it is clear that it 
did not contribute to make the Prince's attitude either 
more genial or more hearty. 

He was stronger than all of his detractors put to- 
gether; he fought not for himself but for his father's 
life. For his sake he had set himself the task of winning 
this sorely disputed battle. Even if every one else hither- 
to supporting him should relinquish the struggle, he 
would continue alone to uphold truth and duty. 

His allies despaired? Very well; they did not love as 
he did, then, that was all! He, the son, would not yield, 
would not let his father go down thus to the grave. 
There was a chance, there was a cure; he, unaided, would 
enforce this one remedy to so grim an evil; he would 
not leave the disheartened sufferer in other hands any 
longer; he himself would watch over him, nurse him, 
comfort him, and finally save him — save him himself, 
since every one now seemed to abandon him to his 
wretched fate. 

The passion of his determination had become almost 
unbearable to nerves and heart, a passion strong enough 
to conquer worlds — and yet he failed! 

The turmoil in his soul, of love struggling against de- 
spair, the desire to save, combating a sort of frenzy of 

131 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

anger inspired by his antagonists' despicable methods, 
his almost inspired eloquence, the manliness of his whole 
attitude, his audacious fearlessness of the world and its 
comments, the splendor of his aim, the strangely pure 
loftiness of his purpose, all were in vain, for since Dr. 
von Virchow's report had been made known in con- 
junction with Dr. Mackenzie's, the theory of cancer 
had been finally done away with, for the time being, 
at least, and a factitious gladness pervaded every cor- 
ner of that palace where so abominable a drama was 
still in progress, lighting upon each face a smile that to 
the seeing eye was but a mechanical rictus. 

The aged Emperor had been persuaded to hope, and 
he, poor old man, so great and good and kind of heart, 
did not for a second realize that those who so cleverly 
induced him to permit his beloved son's departure were 
casting the dice for that son's doom. 

Even the patient himself had now been brought to 
believe in the falsity of the German surgeon's diagnosis 
— it is so pleasant to credit the fallibility of those 
who predict the worst to us — his poor dulled eyes, which 
had seemed to shrivel in his head, began once more to 
sparkle with life ; a rosy tint crept back into his white 
face, color to his pale, parched lips. Truly his whole 
being shone with vivacity, and he displayed something 
of a child's eagerness to resume a game of play ruth- 
lessly interrupted by some cruel hand. 

These tall, blond men, with clear, white skins, blue 
eyes, and hair and beards the shade of ripening com, 
are transformed often by a mere flush of joy and of 
hope. 

Merciful Heavens ! were they all mad ? thought Prince 
William. Would not one, excepting those who knew but 
chose to conceal their knowledge, for motives too ugly 
to mention again — notice how frayed was the silver- 

132 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

cord holding this temporarily rejuvenated soul and 
body together ? Would no one realize but himself that 
false hopes, and false hopes alone, were just then pour- 
ing, like some frantic torrent, the last flash of vitality 
through this emaciated sufferer ? 

The young Prince had too keen-witted a nature not 
to know, however, when he was beaten, and when the 
time for vehement protest was past. The assured and 
phlegmatic bearing of his father's party struck him as 
extremely ill-omened. What was the good of attempt- 
ing to enforce his views any longer .'' Did he not see 
how very nearly every one now hung on the ' ' pronuncia- 
mientoes" of the Great Sir Morell, those soft dictates 
gracefull}'' worded, which were as sweet milk for babes 
and with which he seemed to gargle his mouth vo- 
luptuously. No! he. Prince William, could do noth- 
ing more just then, that was certain! Already his at- 
titude was looked upon with an expression of angry 
amaze. He, in his distress, even honestly strove to be- 
lieve that perchance his fears had been unfounded, that 
perchance it was he who was mistaken, but it was of 
no avail. He was too clear-sighted to be deceived even 
for a moment, nor could he succeed in deceiving him- 
self. He found the depth of his utter helplessness, but 
that was all he found. 

Henceforth his father became as a shadow to him, 
something far away from his own life, clouded already 
by the grewsome pallor of death ; he did not even try to 
conceal his intense desire to keep away from him — he 
did not say so, but it was difficult not to see it by his 
manner, and even the few kindly disposed towards him 
began to regard his conduct as singularly unfilial. 

His enemies, however — and just then they were legion 
— proclaimed abroad this alleged unfilial behavior, as 
if it deHghted them to have at last found a seeming 

133 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

ground for their accusations, and asserted triumphant- 
ly that he was furious to see his chances of succession 
recede in the dim distance. 

A Rubicon was crossed! From henceforth Prince 
WilHam was held up to public obloquy as a bad son, a 
cold, cruel, feelingless being, obsessed by but one wish, 
one idea — to reign. 

The summer had come with its burden of roses and 
of perfumes. Potsdam slumbered in sunny stillness, 
the gardens and lawns of the " Marmorpalast" laughed 
in the balmy breeze beneath a wealth of blossoming 
shrubs and murmuring trees, with the " Heiligensee" 
shimmering silver-blue and soft to the eye in the warm 
haze of June. 

The pretty little plump pink - and - white Princelets, 
with their shining curls floating behind them., ran ga\dy 
about, watched by their courageous, high-hearted moth- 
er, who strove to show them always a brow as unclouded 
as the sky was just then, although her burden of sorrow 
was almost more than she could bear. 

The perennial changes in nature which he had loved 
to watch, what were they now to Prince William ? The 
early flowers peeping shyly from the brown earth, the 
first primrose of the year, which he and his young wife 
had searched for with laughing emulation; nay, even 
the joyful voices of his children — to him, hitherto, the 
sweetest of music — what were they now to this embit- 
tered and cruelly wronged man ? 

There was no time in his over-burdened, over- wrought 
life just then to meditate over the birth of a snow-drop, 
or the radiance of his little ones. He found opportu- 
nity to go through all his routine duties as a soldier, to 
accomplish all the constantly accumulating tasks which 
his grandfather's increasing age and fatigue laid upon 
him; but whatever he did was done with a sort of 

134 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

dogged resolution, that left no room for smiles or 
recreation. 

The crumbling of his great saving-work, the triumph 
of the persistent and criminal deception, which was being 
put before the world, the savage blows struck repeatedly 
upon his heart and which had seared and seamed it 
like vitriol, had told upon him more than any one save 
his faithful, devoted wife could divine. The fineness 
of his soul, his punctilious sense of honor, revolted 
against the moral blindness of those who persecuted 
him and had condemned his father to a slow, torturing 
death. He understood the full horror of the situation, 
but their conduct seemed, the more he brooded over it, 
opposed to nature; to him it was conceivable that one 
human being should wrong another, that jealousies 
should arise which might lead to open murders, to de- 
sertions, to betrayals ; he knew the world and its ways 
too well to be surprised at much, but he recoiled at 
what was taking place around his stricken father. 

How could human beings descend to such depths? 
He did not know! And when his thought wandered 
towards his father, now being prepared and braced to 
perform his part in one of the greatest pageants the 
world has witnessed, his feelings could find no expres- 
sion fitting so inhuman a deed. 

"7/ regnera" seems to have been the catchword of the 
Crown Prince's " valiant " party at that period. 

On June 14, 1887, the man who so shortly afterwards 
was to be called by the English-speaking public "Fred- 
erick the Noble," arrived in England, where he had al- 
ways been extraordinarily popular. In addition to the 
charm of his good looks, there was added that sense so 
dear to humanity that he would become one of the 
most prominent Sovereigns of his time, and in the 
deepest depth of many an English statesman's brain was 

135 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

the hope that when that day came they would jfind in 
him a valuable ally, since his fondness for Great Britain 
was well known, as well as his causes of friendliness 
towards that mighty Realm. 

Also, there was not in Frederick the spirit of criticism, 
founded on knowledge, for which his son was already 
then dreaded. He never discussed practical matters in a 
dry, practical manner, asked awkward questions, nor 
pointed out simply but quite convincingly the absurd- 
ity of the answers or of the awkward silences that fre- 
quently followed, as Prince William had been known 
to do, shaking thereby the immemorial calm of many 
a weighty conscience. 

Frederick was, moreover, a striking-looking man, at 
whom all gazed with admiration, remarking in awed 
whispers upon the beauty of that grand, golden-bearded 
rider and the beauty of his horses. Even had he be- 
longed to a far humbler grade, he was one of those per- 
sonalities whom it is quite unnecessary to point out, for 
he was far too visible to the outward eye for that. He 
was, indeed, so large and so handsome that one could 
not have failed to observe him had he swept a crossing, 
and, as it was, he created a sensation wherever he went. 
- Those who watched him closely after his arrival in 
London however, felt as if they had never seen him 
clearly before, for in the searching illumination of those 
summer days — there are sometimes brilliant summer 
days even in London — in the naked light of noon es- 
pecially, his skin seemed dry and stretched, his eyes 
fainter in color, with the fires in them partly extin- 
guished, like the flame of a lamp shining through 
ground glass. 

His moods, too, altered rapidly and inexplicably. 
Sometimes he appeared dull, weary, almost sleepy and 
unwilling to speak or move, glancing aimlessly about 

136 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

him as if thinking of something other than present mat- 
ters; then suddenly roused to starthng gayety and 
bright talkativeness, full of spirits and merriment, and 
speaking of the future as if he saw it draped in the 
rosiest hues. 

These strangely rapid changes aroused deep astonish- 
ment and anxiety, but when on the day of the great 
procession he was seen mounted on a magnificent charg- 
er, wearing his glittering uniform, and looking the typi- 
cal hero, with the slight shade thrown by his splendid 
helmet emphasizing the brightness of his finely modelled 
face and the gleam of his blue eyes, a murmur of exulta- 
tion ran through the throng of Royalties hemming him 
in on all sides, and the gloomy prophesies of the un- 
natural son were commented upon with a candor which 
did not exclude ferocity. 

Ferocious in its almost freezing disdain was also the 
way in which Prince William was treated in England 
during those festive days. Over and over again he 
must have been tempted to abandon everything, to 
go straight back to Berlin, and to cut himself, once and 
for all, adrift from all the horrors of his father's life, as 
it was then; but pride, duty, and that " je ne sais quoi" 
which make up strong characters, forbade his giving 
up, and calmly, silently, sombrely, but without wincing, 
he bore the direct or indirect attacks and slights to 
which he was subjected, his cold, contemptuous appear- 
ance steadily and unfalteringly covering the raging fire 
within. 

That expression of power, that dominant poise, that 
autocratic glance which so greatly disturbed and an- 
gered those who did not know what steamed and flamed 
beneath, were of course brought up against him as the 
culminating pomt of his many sins. 

Ah, fools! blind, foolish, easily cozened humanity! 

137 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

In what a sea of illusions we mortals love to flounder. 
What a singular lack of continuity and concentration 
we display in our beliefs, and how strangely we persist 
in draping the grimmest realities with our own paltry 
fancies and interpretations, when it suits us to do so. 

Did not one heart in that splendid crowd beat with 
pity at the heroism displayed by the wretched Crown 
Prince, who was straining every nerve of his body, every 
fibre of his soul, to maintain the farce of his alleged 
healthfulness ; who was fighting with all the furies of 
physical weakness, of ghastly apprehension, of men- 
tal anguish and of extreme suffering while he made his 
big war-horse curvet gracefully beneath him, and smiled 
the cheerful, pleasing smile of a man strong in body 
and in mind, who looks confidently ahead to a long 
succession of blissful days woven with silk and gold? 

What an endless throng of painful ideas, good inten- 
tions, broken hopes, wild, fragmentary ghosts of all hues 
and shapes, filled his mind as his charger pranced and 
tossed its lovely, well-shaped head on that glorious June 
day, while its rider gave rein to his imagination! But 
gradually, as the hours wore on, his face became gray and 
tormented, and when any one looked at him he turned 
away his eyes, shunning scrutiny, as if he suddenly felt 
how rapidly the card-house erected by his party around 
him was tumbling to pieces. 

Poor Crown Prince Frederick! The shapeless mental 
ghosts that had floated around him on that never-to- 
be-forgotten occasion began from then on to take form, 
to emerge from the void in order to accompany him 
throughout his subsequent weary and miserable wan- 
derings. They swarmed thickly to his side during the 
three months he spent at Norwood, they followed him 
to Scotland and to the lovely shores of the Isle of Wight. 
Aye! they did not give him a minute's respite when he 

138 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

tried what the delightful climate of Tyrol could do for 
this obstinate "bad cold %vith bronchial complications," 
which Sir Morell Mackenzie was so ably curing; and the 
ghostly shapes — ghosts no longer, but horrible, grimac- 
ing realities now — settled down with him for good and 
all in the winter home finally selected for him at San 
Remo. 

The green silence of the summer flowed away from 
Northern Europe, and v/ith it the Royal patient jour- 
neyed to the far-off gardens of the sun, flying from the 
cold and the snow, and from the sharp sense and the 
sharp knives of the German surgeons he had been 
taught to dread; far from hope, too, and farther yet 
from the last chances of recovery. 

He was but the ghost of his former self when he 
reached the pretty little Italian "health resort" — what 
an irony in that denomination — which amid its en- 
circling olive-covered hills is so merrily bowered in 
bouquets of gigantic palms and millions upon millions 
of flowers. 

The beauty of this place was perhaps more oppressive 
to him in his despairing state of mind than had it pos- 
sessed less color and less fragrance; the teeming life of 
the South seemed to jeer at his misery; the jumbled 
scenes produced by ailing men, women, and children, 
who, like him, had come to winter there; by the chatter- 
ing, laughing, singing, vituperative natives in their gaudy 
costumes, beguiling in shrill, voluble accents the visitors 
to purchase fruits and flowers, or to take a donkey ride, 
made him dizzy and confused, and symptoms of such 
gravity manifested themselves at once that Sir Morell 
Mackenzie was summoned post - haste from his luxu- 
rious Harley Street mansion. 

San Remo! That delicious, pocket - paradise, that 
garden full of palms, feathery eucalyptus-trccs, oranges, 

lo 139 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

lemons, and drooping vines, among which little brown 
lizards, immensely Italian in their beady-eyed restless- 
ness, scurry towards the golden sands of the eternally 
blue Ligurian Sea, or rustle beneath gorgeous blooms, 
velvety and glowing like priceless Oriental stuffs! 
What a place for a man to watch life ebb slowly away 
from him! 

Sir Morell, as I have already said, was very clever, 
shrewd, too, with a shrewdness that is opposed to the 
blunter virtues of the simple of mind, and which urges 
its possessor to become somewhat regardless of conse- 
quences, to trust to a hitherto triumphant luck, and to 
disregard, with the same noble sweep of decision, vague 
intuitions about the appalling turn which things may 
take after all, even when great celebrities have prophe- 
sied to the contrary. 

The frantic message from San Remo cannot have been 
precisely to him a bolt from the blue, and yet his amaz- 
ing attitude of dolorous surprise when he arrived with 
the magical promptness secured by much gold, the ex- 
pression of bitter resentment towards a Providence 
which for once had forborne to uphold his dictates, were 
masterpieces of achieved perfection. Trouble, how- 
ever, did not whip up his intellect, and his well-known 
power to hearten his most desponding patients did not 
attain on that occasion quite its customary efficiency, 
for he allowed his anxiety to leak out, and the one enemy 
within the walls communicated promptly with Berlin. 

When the disastrous news reached the poor old Em- 
peror his distress was pitiful to behold. To him this 
turn towards the worse was a fearful shock, and there 
was nothing assumed or theatrical in the bitter tears 
shed by those weary eyes. 

Prince William, who was with him at the time, re- 
belled violently at being requested to start at once for 

140 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

San Remo. His heart was hot within him, for the 
raging fire kindled a few months before had had neither 
time nor occasion to die down in this short interval. He 
had been accused of exaggeration even by those who 
had then sided with him ; was he now to go in person and 
report upon the accuracy of what he had predicted ? 

With his habitual mental swiftness he grasped the dif- 
ficulties of his position, remembered the cruel injustice 
displayed towards him by his father's party, and which 
still jangled about him like chains. He realized that if 
once more he set his foot in that nest of ghastly in- 
trigues, he would act again exactly as he had done before, 
and that if he was pushed too far, much would happen 
which he would like to avoid. He loathed being forced 
to adopt the role of controller as much as he recoiled 
at that of consoler. His whole nature revolted against 
it, but when he looked at the weeping old man who 
implored him to go — to go at once — something stronger 
than his own personal feelings and distastes, something 
stronger even than his indomitable pride, stepped in, 
and he could not resist it. There was no one save 
himself whom the Emperor could trust; this was why 
he could not fail him, and so he yielded — under the 
compulsion most impossible of all to withstand, that 
of a being weaker than one's self — yielded and went. 



CHAPTER VII 

The air was full of cold dampness, that seemed posi- 
tively charged with sorrow and anxiety, when the Prince 
left Berlin. The weather had been very dreary, and 
now rain fell steadily and dismally from a low, brooding 
sky covered with leaden clouds, which gave one the im- 
pression of anticipating a calamity, and as he steamed 
out of his future capital, William saw a landscape 
blurred by Heaven's heavily falling tears, while upon 
the glistening panes of his private car great drops, dis- 
colored by the soot always hanging around big cities, 
glided in disfiguring spots. 

It takes more courage sometimes to rise above the 
depressing influences of such villanous atmospherical 
conditions than is needed to face the cannons of a battle- 
field, and I have always thought that this sombre de- 
parture, under such trying circumstances, and so simply 
accepted in the way of duty, was to be counted among 
William II's. most praiseworthy deeds; but even the 
dire and dreary bleakness of the countries he first trav- 
ersed was less depressing than the wretched wrangle, 
the fevered atmosphere, and the infinite miseries which 
he was to encounter upon his arrival in San Remo, at 
the pretty Villa Zirio. 

It was cruel to force him to go there, and he knew 
it, but the blow was dealt by the feeble, loving hand of 
a very, very old man, unconscious in his grief and mad- 
dening fears of the true state of affairs; and so he, who 
was young and strong, submitted his will, suppressed 

142 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

his increasing horror, and travelled as swiftly as could 
be achieved, to find, as he had feared, the mark of death 
stamped ineradicably upon his father's face. 

Had he been greeted by sorrowful people, who, hav- 
ing lost all hope, had lost also all arrogance, he might 
yet have relented; but Sir Morell had by now recon- 
quered all his far-famed "nerve," and in consequence, 
to the Prince's boundless indignation, he heard the 
English "entourage" of the dying man still talk cheer- 
fully of the future, and declare that the disease was 
"not" cancer, while in his own reception there was 
more than a hint of how useless and ill-advised his pre- 
cipitation in coming had been. 

The German doctors in attendance — more for form 
than usefulness, more to throw a sop to the "Fatherland " 
than because they were meant to be consulted — almost 
wept as they told him how completely they had been 
crowded out, and how absolutely the Prophet from 
Harley Street had ground them under his supercilious 
heel. Prince William saw for himself how this newly 
made Knight — I should have said sooner that his title 
was conferred upon him in recognition of his really 
magical success in reviving the Crown Prince sufficiently 
to admit of his appearance at the Jubilee, but custom 
is a law, and Dr. Mackenzie is so celebrated as "Sir 
Morell" that I intentionally used this higher-sounding 
appellation from the first — confided his views of the 
case to every journalist happening to desire them, how 
he tirelessly charged the German surgeons with having 
mishandled and aggravated the case, and how well- 
founded their bitterness was towards him, and he, 
Prince William, felt as if he was positively touching the 
very depth of human cruelty and human injustice. 

I am not writing a novel, nor one of those honeyed 
panegyrics which Sovereigns are accustomed to have 

143 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

grandiloquently thrown at their feet, but merely the 
truth, supported by many written and printed docu- 
ments, the truth that has been hitherto sadly neglected 
regarding Prince William's real position at that time, 
and if, therefore, it wounds certain sensibilities, deplore 
it as I may, I must accept the consequence thereof, 
conscious only of the necessity of opening the eyes of 
the English-speaking peoples to a great and unpardon- 
able wrong. 

The civilized world has clung stubbornly to the belief 
that Prince William was unfilial and cruel; his attitude 
towards his stricken father has seemed flatly inexpli- 
cable, and to-day the very first remark which follows 
any praise given to William II. is: "Ah! but remember 
how ill he behaved towards his poor dying father!" 

The time has therefore arrived, and more than ar- 
rived, to say something about the terrible experiences 
which he was called upon to undergo, the conflicts which 
tore at his very heart-strings, and in order to relieve the 
public eye of so persistent a leucoma, sharp and sure 
instruments are requisite. 

True, these conflicts, these bitter trials, and all their 
attendant sufferings have gone to the making of the 
man who is to-day German Emperor; it was his baptism 
of fire, the crisis which finally placed him in possession 
of himself. He very likely did not analyze all this then, 
perchance even now he is too active and too over-bur- 
dened to analyze it all, but as the athlete at the end of a 
long course of training feels the strength of his muscles, 
Prince William, when he ascended the Throne, must 
have mentally realized the iron thews which his soul 
had acquired during those long months of stress, and 
must almost have been tempted to say approvingly 
to himself, "This is I!" 

As he looked at his father's white, weary face and 

144 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

hollow eyes, at the great form now so pitifully languid 
and emaciated, lying on the big sofa of the pretty 
drawing-room at the Villa Zirio, anger flowed fiercely 
below his calm, cold, stern exterior, and the poor sufferer, 
surrounded by flowers, books, music, pretty "bric-a- 
brac," and all that feminine taste and feminine care could 
achieve to brighten a little the scene of his miseries, 
gazed longingly and vainly at him, searching for a flash 
of sympathy or of softness upon those set, inflexible 
features, or a break in the hard, almost harsh voice. 
How could he divine that the breaking-point was well- 
nigh reached, that this "unfilial" son, for fear of not 
being able to recapture himself, should he ever so 
slightly give rein to his feelings, was reduced to the 
necessity of escaping at the first opportunity from the 
sick-room and the presence of those who were always 
posted about his father, so that he should have no 
chance of speaking to him alone. 

Of course only those who knew him well could have 
guessed that there were pulses beating in his temples 
and in his eyelids, and a dull thudding against his side, 
which might at any minute force him to betray his over- 
whelming agitation. But those who knew him well were 
apparently extraordinarily unobserving just then, since 
the legend of his unfilial behavior was allowed to ger- 
minate and to develop with the phenomenal vigor and 
opulence of the upas-tree. 

The winter of 1887-88 went forward on its course, 
the bitter wrangle, the boundless rancor and recklessness 
of mutual accusation between the two more and more 
envenomed camps, went forward also, and the public — 
thanks to the cordon of newspaper correspondents con- 
stantly and tirelessly engirdling the Villa Zirio — began 
to take part in the contest from a distance. 

Astounding as it may now appear, it was quite usual 

H5 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

to read in the newspapers, one day that the German 
surgeons were trying to oust the British medical men 
in order to murder the Crown Prince at their leisure, 
while at other times these same excellently informed 
journals insisted upon it that Mackenzie was deceiving 
the German public, and had subjected his luckless pa- 
tient to the most ghastly mutilations in order to con- 
ceal the existence of the cancer. 

The basest motives were ascribed by one faction to 
the other in and out of print; the public jeered, hooted, 
and cursed, vituperating and ridiculing in turn, adopt- 
ing one or the other theory as inclination dictated, 
and, though the more thoughtful and sensible shrugged 
their shoulders at siich wild accusations, during all this 
time pandemonium reigned supreme wherever Crown 
Prince Frederick's deplorable condition and situation 
were mentioned. 

In the winter of that year there was very bad weather 
in Northern Europe; snow, sleet, and storm delayed 
railway-trains, and transformed even the fair plains of 
France and of Southern Germany into trackless white 
stretches resembling the Russian Steppes. 

Several times, nevertheless. Prince William made the 
voyage between Berlin and San Remo, leaving the 
former city behind a snorting, hissing engine that nois- 
ily flung steam and fire into the congealed air, moving 
with a jerking, dragging sound over the frozen snow 
across the bleak, blank face of the land, where now and 
again a clump of trees, denuded and shivering, showed 
black against an uncompromisingly steely sky. 

" Unfilial son!" Neither wind nor weather, drifting 
snow wreaths nor sombre skies, deterred him from going 
in person to see his so "sorely neglected fatJier "; and as 
month followed month, it became apparent that sor- 
rowful sights were to meet him at both ends of his la- 

146 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

borious journeys, since the dear old Emperor's long- 
protracted life was swiftly drawing to a close. 

March came, obliterating the Northern world in its 
shimmering shroud of snow and ice. The church-towers 
and square-shouldered houses of Berlin were blurred 
and blotted by dense fogs, which resolved themselves 
into opaque and begrimed icicles, creaking and groaning 
on every roof, and in the great Royal palace the Great 
Emperor lay on his death-bed. 

In attendance upon him was Prince William, to 
whom he spoke now as if he were his immediate heir, for 
the flight of his last illusions concerning his son's falla- 
cious hopes had preceded but by a few days his own 
final break-down. 

In spite of all that he had lately undergone, the young 
Prince did not seem physically tired, but he had evident- 
ly lost much of his elasticity of movement, his eyes had 
a far-away, strained look in their dark-blue depths, and 
he had grown very silent. Almost mutely he listened 
to the dying old man's injunctions of State and inti- 
mate policy, muttered in the feeble drone of a being 
whose brain-power has survived his strength. 

The cold, almost aggressive pride which had en- 
veloped the grandson like some jointless armor at 
San Remo, had given way to boundless tenderness and 
deference; he was evidently enduring now in its full 
weight the double load of regret and pain which the 
simultaneous ebbing away of these two lives — those of 
father and grandfather — had laid upon his heart, for 
his smallest action betrayed personal feeling of a very 
acute kind. Every minute of those grim days was like 
a knife thrust ruthlessly into his sensitive nerves, and 
the anticipation of the shock of what was so soon to take 
place left his soul more numbed than all the mists and 
the snows of that fearful winter could have left his body. 

147 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

He never once ''gave himself away,'' however, but 
buried in his own breast all the impulses and emotions 
which could agitate the old Emperor, to whom he gave 
no sign of his growing anxiety, save by an unusual soft- 
ness of manner, which, indeed, was startling in this 
singularly undemonstrative man. 

From his wife he received the greatest possible as- 
sistance in his self-imposed task of nurse, for she was 
devotion itself in attendance upon her grandfather-in- 
law — watched by him night and day, and surrounded 
him with that exquisitely gentle atmosphere that seemed 
even more peculiarly her own, now that pity, sorrow, 
compassion, regret, and many other tender emotions 
moved her. 

Physicians came and went continually, but, alas! there 
was nothing to be done. The human envelope was 
worn out, its delicate and intricate mechanism rebelled, 
grew hourly feebler, and must at any moment give way 
altogether. 

Tears constantly welled up in the Emperor's kindly 
old eyes at the thought of the cruel tragedy still being 
enacted in San Remo. 

" Poor Fritz! Poor Fritz!" was the eternal, low refrain 
he mumbled as if he could see his dear son writhing in 
his agony; then, from time to time, the mind wandered 
a little, and disconnected sentences about his boy's 
goodness and virtues and attainments were repeated 
over and over again. Sometimes, also, he would raise 
himself in bed, with the help of William's arm, and 
counsel him about affairs of State in a clear, lucid fash- 
ion, which was astonishing, considering the age, weak- 
ness, and sufferings of this heroic patient. 

At last the end came, the Emperor's thin, trem- 
bling hands moved feebly in benediction above his be- 
loved grandson's bowed head, and then very quietly, 

148 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

like an angel that takes wing, his chivalrous soul left 
him. 

When Prince William closed his grandfather's eyes a 
great weight of unending grief sank upon his life. He 
was the more unhappy because this good and just old 
man had been wellnigh his only friend, and he knew 
that anger and offence were awaiting him outside that 
peaceful death - chamber. Misunderstandings born of 
doubt, temper, and suspicion had marred most of his 
young life; continually he had been accused of being 
too arrogant, too harsh, too confident in himself, -and 
though he knew that he had always been perfectly sin- 
cere and that the popular conception of his character 
and of his motives was wholly wrong, utterly mistaken, 
that his truth and his loyalty had been above blame, 
yet fine temperaments like his are always cruelly open 
to self-reproach, and he determined to exercise more 
patience, more forbearance, more indulgence, and more 
submissiveness in that near future which loomed 
so darkly and threateningly over him. Indeed, had 
there been less intolerance and antagonism displayed 
towards him then, it is certain that much which hap- 
pened ultimately could have been avoided, or at least 
softened. But, alas! fate decided differently, and Prince 
William was made as unhappy as it is possible for a 
man to be who has no crime on his conscience, and has 
all his personal wants richly supplied. 

William the Great died on March 9, 1888, and on 
March nth Frederick arrived at Berlin in a special 
train, that had accomplished the swiftest trip on record 
in spite of the ghastly assaults of a regular " tourmcntc ," 
encountered like some ill-omened and supreme "de- 
traquement" of the elements, on the very threshold of 
his Empire. 

When the new Emperor alighted from his saloon- 

149 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

carriage, there was nothing triumphant in his bear- 
ing. 

"Poor Fritz! Poor Fritz!" his father had murmured, 
when dying, and this expression of deep, desolate pity 
was justified indeed by one glance at the pallid features 
and almost tottering form of that wretched and su- 
premely miserable man, who gave the impression of 
an unhappy being led to execution, far rather than of 
a Prince about to ascend the gilded steps of a Throne. 

His party, on the other hand, offered a glaring con- 
trast to their unfortunate leader, whose evident state 
of trepidation, anxiety, and pained bewilderment robbed 
him of all sense or even appearance of a leadership he 
had in reality never exercised. They — his party — re- 
joiced openly. Was not Frederick, Emperor — had he 
not won that terrible handicap with death, in spite of 
the extraordinary weight of lead laid upon him by a 
malady which knows no relenting? Their faces were 
not gloomy or pale on that freezing March evening, 
bleak and desolate. They had a vague resemblance to 
a flock of rooks settling down on a field newly ploughed 
and rich in fattening food, and all with equal and un- 
ceremonious readiness affected to ignore Prince William 
— as much, of course, as etiquette allowed. 

The Prince was very calm, very white, very still; the 
warmer current which had sprung up in his heart, softened 
by his grandfather's death, was once more congealed to 
harder ice by their indecently exultant attitude. 

The fact that he, too, had risen in rank and status, 
that he was now Crown Prince, was also ignored like 
some trifling incident that can be attended to at leisure, 
or, if possible, altogether disregarded. In school-boy 
language, it looked as if the general opinion was that 
this sullen youth needed being "taken down a peg or 
two" — to be sure, Prince William was not a person 

ISO 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

whom it would be easy to take down either one peg or 
many, but that for the present did not matter. 

It is curious what " parti-pris" and rancor will work 
even in people possessed of much natural intelligence, 
strength, and talent, who can on occasion be good- 
natured, and yet who choose to show themselves hor- 
ribly cruel when they fancy, at the turning of a card, 
that they have won the day! 

Wounded pride and mute disgust made the energetic 
face of the new Crown Prince look extraordinarily grim, 
it is true. He knew now that gentleness would not an- 
swer, and the slight frown which never faded from his 
brows was a covert rebuke, which could not be quite 
overlooked; indeed, his antagonists did not at all like 
the steady, contemptuous gaze of those stem, tranquil 
eyes, that, as day followed day, became more and more 
disconcerting to them. 

So cold, so grave, so visibly disapproving, this Crown 
Prince was really insufferable to them, and but for the 
very real fear which he was beginning to awaken in 
their breasts they would have expressed to him their 
feelings in unequivocal terms. The persistent silence 
he kept was disquieting, too; they did not divine that 
he held his lips so obstinately shut because he feared 
every moment that some stinging and irreparable word 
would escape him, because, also, he had now grown 
accustomed to resent helplessly, censure mutely, despise 
unavailingly, and suffer secretly. 

The plans, political and otherwise, that were buzzed 
in his ears continually, sounded to him like some de- 
risive, empty mockery of his father's pitiable condition 
— that wretched man whose nerves winced, whose heart 
ached, whose body felt such excruciating pain, and whose 
fond soul was starving for the word of love that he, his 
own son, could not by any effort summon to his lips. 

151 



TMPERATOR ET REX 

The on-lookers, in their ignorance of the manifold 
wheels within wheels, which make up a temperament 
and character like those of Prince William, became 
more and more convinced that he was showing a really 
indecent lack of feeling; those who affected to be inform- 
ed of what took place during the protracted confer- 
ences between Emperor Frederick, his son, and Prince 
Bismarck at that Schloss of Charlottenburg, which had 
been so hastily prepared for the reception of the invalid, 
waxed eloquent in their denunciations of his (William's) 
callous and shameless haste to snatch the reins of 
power from his father's shaking hands. Others, coming 
straight from the new Emperor's sick-room, actually 
alleged that the new Crown Prince was demanding the 
immediate establishment of a Regency — unsupported, 
unproved, foolish statements that should, like some ab- 
ject, anonymous letter, have been consigned to the flames 
of oblivion, but which the world in its kindly charity 
picked up and magnified and set up on high " poteaux 
indicateurs," so that they could be read and assimilated 
by all passers-b}^ 

Bismarck had pledged himself by a solemn promise 
to the dying Emperor William I. to remain in office 
"upon any and all terms short of peremptory dismissal," 
throughout the necessarily brief reign of Emperor Fred- 
erick; and this man of iron was a terrible thorn in the 
side of the " Friedrichcrs," but it was quite impossible 
to attempt getting rid of this stiff, intensely disagree- 
able, and pre-eminently virtuous statesman, who, when 
he said a thing, meant it literally, and who, when he de- 
cided that a thing had to be done, managed almost al- 
ways to carry through his project. 

No, there were many thorns in the roses and laurels 
snatched from the grave by Emperor Frederick's party! 
To be sure, Prince Bismarck had a hard time of it just 

152 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

then himself, and even his unequalled coolness and 
shrewd "savoir-faire" were often shaken with disqui- 
etude; but the history of those pitiful ninety-nine days 
during which a man suffering a hundred varieties of 
agonizing torture in every hour of the twenty-four sat 
on the German Throne, need not detain us long, for 
they would only read like an exaggerated nightmare. 

The stolid self-assurance and self-admiration of the 
" Friedrichers" was, nevertheless, beginning to melt 
before the grewsome and rapid approach of death; they 
were commencing — some of them, at least — to be in- 
tensely frightened, as if they dreaded to be soon trans- 
fixed by some of the barbed arrows they themselves 
had thrown with so much "doigte." The unfortunate 
Emperor could not be expected to live much longer, 
and now looked forward to death as a deliverance from 
infinite torture. The knife, applied too late, had robbed 
him of his voice, of his power of swallowing, almost of 
that of breathing; every gasping effort to obtain air 
covered his livid face with the clammy beads of an icy 
perspiration, and caused a little, hacking, funereal cough 
which very dangerously tried the slender amount of vi- 
tality he still possessed. 

It was, however, terrible to die, terrible, just when 
he had attained the aim of his whole life, and could 
at last do what he liked, and in spite of the release 
from pain, which he anticipated so longingly, sad and 
useless regrets still bore him untiring company. 

At night he would lie with closed eyes and to all out- 
ward semblance unconscious and indifferent to all 
worldly things, his worn-out strengtli barely sufficient 
to draw out from his mutilated throat a few desperate 
breaths, his once handsome face looking ghastly in its 
waxen emaciation, his tall form very straight, very like 
an effigy carven in stone, save for the pitiful heaving of 

153 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

the chest beneath the mere sheet covering it, during 
these first hot nights of the late spring. 

Unconscious of all worldly things he may have been in 
appearance, but those who watched through the long, dark 
hours, knew well that the poor sufferer's profound de- 
pression and muteness were not due to any unconscious- 
ness of what was taking place around him, that the bit- 
ter mockery of his vain efforts to be a King at last — 
at last — was present every second to his mind, and lay 
like an iron band around his heart. 

To have hoped so long for so much, and to find this! 
What an abominable irony! 

During the day he forced himself to give all his at- 
tention to his duties as a Ruler; he received in audience 
all his Ministers, and that with a regularity and a punc- 
tiliousness which aroused the admiration and wonder 
of everybody; signed State papers and documents un- 
murmuringiy, and attended scrupulously to the routine 
work of his lofty ofhce ; but he felt with cruel distinctness 
that it was too late now for him to give a thought to 
all the reforms he had planned, and during his short 
reign he, indeed, accomplished but one, namely, the expul- 
sion of von Puttkamer from the Ministry of the Interior. 
This was a triumph for the " Friedrichers" over Bis- 
marck, for von Puttkamer had been in office since 1881, 
and was a loyal Bismarckian and the terror of Prussian 
Liberalism. The Minister himself had known that he 
was doomed from the moment when Frederick had 
inherited the Crown, since he had never made a secret 
of the fact that in his opinion the reign of this new 
Emperor would prove the political ruin of Germany, 
and in his ministerial oration announcing William the 
Great's death he had pointedly avoided mentioning his 
successor's name. 

On the evening of this defeat Bismarck gave a splen- 

IS4 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

did dinner in the fallen Minister's honor, a rather use- 
less and cruel affront to Frederick, since the latter, who, 
in the first days of June, had been conveyed by boat 
to Potsdam, wishing to die in his dear " Neites Palais," 
was now so far gone that he could no longer eat, and was 
not informed of banquets given either with a view of 
pleasing or of displeasing him. 

"Poor Fritz! poor Fritz!" Well might the dying fa- 
ther have said this of the dying son, poor and miserable 
and wretched beyond the power of any pen to describe, 
with his bluish lips moving in a vain effort to speak, 
and his shaking fingers continually busy with the little 
squares of paper upon which he pencilled his ever-rest- 
less thoughts, knowing, as he did, that he had not much 
time left, and unwilling to go away without making his 
meaning clear. 

The idea of death, which he fancied a welcome one, 
had during those last days suddenly become frightful 
to him; his whole being struggled against it. He saw 
himself lying in state, clad in his full Regalia, for the 
multitude to stare at; almost did he smell the scent of 
exotics and of burning wax peculiar to such occasions, 
and he wondered how the pulses of his heart could go on 
beating, with so grewsome an expectation to hasten it 
towards the end. In a few hours, most likely, people 
would be hurrying to and fro to prepare his remains for 
that supreme pageant — the last in which he would take 
part! 

"One does not feel when one is dead." He must 
have kept on repeating this to himself mechanically, for 
mechanically he wrote it again and again on the little 
paper squares which, like great Acherontia moths, flut- 
tered in the summer breeze blowing through the wide- 
open windows of his room, when the breathless Emperor 
gave himself up to those terrible visions which broke 
" 155 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

upon liim and faded away again like the whirring gyra- 
tions of a zoetrope. 

The glory of the June sun had become intolerable to 
him, and carefully were the blinds pulled down to ex- 
clude the glow of the superb blue sky, the breath of 
the millions of flowers blossoming in the palace gar- 
dens, and the amorous twitter of the birds flitting 
amid the newly unfolded leafage of the brilliantly green 
trees. 

At night, when the stars peeped forth from the dark- 
ened vault — which seemed to him now unusually near 
to the earth — he lay gazing at them between his fits of 
suffocation; his dying hopes, wonders, resolves, plans, 
and longings, stealing forth from the silvery twilight of 
the rising moon in a silent but complete procession of 
hooded phantoms, pitilessly obsessing him with the by- 
gone fragrance of the dreams that had drifted away in 
the buffeting of Fate's cruel storm. 

The voice of a bugle ringing out from the nearest 
barracks often resurrected for him his brilliant military 
past; great events thronged round him whispering of 
long-forgotten incidents, of the battle-fields of France, 
where the wounded and dead of both armies had lain 
heaped up in the blood-bespattered snow, of the tri- 
umphant re-entry into Berlin, to the sound of a music 
which Frederick heard now as if from another world, 
and with it all the echo of many passions and many 
sorrows flowing to some distant ocean of silent waves 
and impalpable foam. 

He knew the measure of his impotence now! Ah, 
yes, he knew it only too well, when thus the graves in 
his heart gave up their dead. 

He had striven and failed utterly. His defeat reared 
itself up before him like a monster in the night, for never 
could he strive again or fight again like a man. Nor 

156 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

could lie make a friend of his pain, and use it as a spur to 
urge him to new effort, since the end of all things earth- 
ly had come for him. But death, perhaps, would tell 
him everything, would explain — as we are told to hope 
— why such agonies are permitted by One all merciful 
to His creatures, would tell him the secret of life, what 
it meant and to what it led. 

The one comfort which this sorely stricken man found 
during these last days and nights of torture was the 
constant presence beside him of his daughter-in-law, 
whose great and delicate tenderness was like a balm to 
his wounded spirit. Princess Augusta-Victoria was to 
him then a daughter in the full acceptance of the term, 
a strong, reliant helper, a devoted and indefatigable 
nurse, with a singularly human and sympathetic gleam 
in the azure of her gentle eyes, and he had never real- 
ized so well as then how precious simple and natural 
goodness is in a woman. 

She had had to face much already, this young mother 
who now so constantly bent over him, and how brave, 
self-sacrificing, forgiving, nay, even utterly forgetful of 
injustice and offence, did she prove herself to be! She 
spoke ever in a low, harmonious, soothing voice, which 
lulled the excitement of the twitching, nightmare-rid- 
den patient in his worst hours of suffering, when, crazed 
almost and haggard, he panted despairingly for the 
breath which was drawn-in horribly with a sort of sob 
through his lacerated throat, and when beating his 
arms in the air as if clutching at some support, he 
found it in the cool, firm, caressing clasp of her hands. 
When the flush of fever appeared on the livid gray of 
his cheeks, when he tossed on his pillows as if they 
were filled with live coals, a passion of pity would keep 
her on her knees beside him murmuring words of en- 
couragement, which hushed his piteously stifled groans; 

157 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

untiring, always ready to cheer and to protect, ever 
calm and consoling, as if her force of endurance had no 
limit, while every one else about was dazed and helpless. 
Truly, she alone had the secret to comfort and soothe 
him, be strong for him and help him; she alone seemed 
able to patiently endure the strain of waiting near him 
for the fast -approaching end of so much wretchedness, 
for his last summons upon earth. 

The morning of June 15, 1888, rose with heavy 
summer rain. The sky was a lowering arch of deluge, 
littered with clouds ragged and fringed as if torn from 
some immense pall. The breeze that had blown dur- 
ing the night and refreshed the sick-room had dropped 
like a broken wing, and the light was dull and gray in 
color, blotting out the whole landscape and the stag- 
nant shapes of the dripping trees. 

The Imperial patient was sinking fast; he lay with 
closed eyes, and a whistling intake of breath, awful to 
hear, shook the very curtains of his bed. From time 
to time, when there was a few minutes' respite in his 
sufferings, he would open those glazing orbs and ap- 
parently take a shuddering notice of the steady tattoo 
of the rain on the palace roofs, as if he realized that 
even nature was weeping for him, but next moment a 
new pang would make him quiver with the old restless- 
ness of helpless agony. 

Outside, in spite of the weather, many people had 
gathered. The news that within a few hours, for the 
second time in three months, Prussia was to be robbed 
of a King, had rushed like wild-fire through Potsdam, 
and in awed and terrified silence men and women stood 
in the splashing gravel and mud, gazing with frightened 
eyes at Frederick's well-known windows. 

The morning went monotonously on its weary way, 
all traffic was at a stand-still, and barely did any of 

158 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

those watching and waiting take time to swallow a few 
hurried mouthfuls at noon. 

It was late in the afternoon of that dismal summer 
day when the black-and-white Royal Standard above 
the palace slowly glided downward, announcing to 
the drenched multitude that their King, eighth of his 
line and second German Emperor, was dead. 

A hoarse murmur rumbled through the crowd like 
the sudden roll of a crape-mufified drum, a murmur 
which partook of the nature of a groan or a magnified 
gasp, but which died away abruptly — killed by over- 
whelming astonishment — when suddenly orderlies were 
seen running hither and thither, and troops hastily de- 
ployed on all sides to form an impassable cordon of 
gleaming bayonets between the palace and all the rest 
of the world. 

********* 
********* 

In an inner room of the great building — a room which 
had merely a view of the gardens, and where deep, al- 
most complete silence reigned, he who but a moment 
before had been Crown Prince Wilham was walking 
slowly up and down. His manner was that of a man 
who has fully realized the gravity of his situation, and 
yet he was neither flustered nor in any way excited. It 
had been glaringly apparent to him for some weeks past, 
that the death of his father would be in more ways than 
one a dangerous crisis for Germany and for himself. 
The position was not a pleasant one. For three months 
he had been surrounded by hostile people, and now 
there seemed to be no hope of his assuming control 
without some display of mastery, which again would 
pass for cruelty and lack of feeling. 

His prompt action in cutting all communication be- 
tween the palace and the town had therefore been not 

159 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

the result of impulse, but the deliberate execution of a 
previous decision. 

William II., by the Grace of God King of Prussia, by 
that of his army German Emperor, possessing fifty-four 
nobiliary titles, and, in spite of all possible Constitutions, 
an almost intact omnipotence, was now a man to reckon 
with, educated and informed to his very finger-tips, 
deeply read, immensely clever, a perfectly finished 
"beau-ideal" at once of nineteenth-century up-to-date- 
ness and of medieeval energy, valor, and strength; a 
man who would invariably know what to do, and 
would do it better than his compeers — upright, physi- 
cally and morally trim and perfectly determined. 

To all men comes sooner or later the moment wherein 
their lives are suddenly thrust into their own hands to 
shape or to spoil, to make or to mar; this man, at least, 
would neither spoil nor mar his; his initiative was not 
overshadowed by that of Bismarck or of any one else; he 
was thoroughly genuine, thoroughly original, thorough- 
ly himself in spite of all that may have been said to the 
contrary. Behind his cold, sometimes sneeringly as- 
sumed indifference there had always lurked a steady 
energy, a perfect self-command, and that odd and rare 
mixture of self-confidence and diffidence which is sure 
to attain success in the world. Moreover, he was ex- 
traordinarily ambitious for his country, which is the 
finest and noblest ambition a man may harbor, and 
that is just why his first proclamations were addressed 
to his army and his navy. But of this more anon. 

A hurricane of denunciation greeted the young Em- 
peror's action in surrounding with troops the palace, 
where the body of his father had not had time as 
yet to grow cold. That was to be anticipated, for so 
lofty a wall of misapprehension as that then surround- 
ing Germany's new Monarch could not be expected to 

i6o 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

fall in ruins at the mere blast of the trumpet pro- 
claiming him Imperator et Rex. Yet, was this action 
unnecessary? Could it have been avoided? No, a 
million times no, as it is easy to show, and will be 
shown imm.ediately ; but its far-reaching results only 
go to prove how some comparatively unimportant 
move may at certain moments — like the tiny piece of 
snow-crust falling on the mountain-side — bring about an 
avalanche of misconception. 

During Frederick's short reign the Liberal party had 
been temporarily brought to the front, and to their 
swollen ''amour-propre'' and gigantic expectations noth- 
ing seemed impossible. 

The death of the Emperor called a brutal halt to 
their machinations, although they had known from the 
first, "a rCen pouvoir doiUcr," that their supremacy was 
doomed to be of singularly short duration, and had im- 
prudently vowed aloud to avenge the slights and re- 
buffs from which they had suffered in the past, should 
these slights and rebuffs be repeated under the new 
regime. 

It was unfortunate for them that they should have 
lost the man they were pleased to call their leader, in 
so tragic a way, but their keen wits saw a means of re- 
venge against his successor which partly consoled them 
for this disaster — namely, an opportunity to obtain and 
publish a portion of the chatty and very circumstantial 
diary which Frederick had, during the last thirty years 
or so, faithfully but imprudently kept, and which was 
studded with State and Family secrets. 

These compact little volumes were written in the pes- 
simistic tone that strangely enough seemed to pervade 
the unfortunate Prince's entire life, and it was hoped 
that in the confusion resulting from the death of the 
Sovereign they could be smuggled out of the country. 

i6i 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

William II. knew this, and knew also that there were 
some among his dead father's party who would scruple 
at nothing to pay off old scores and to strengthen the 
tottering Liberal faction; moreover, some of his father's 
papers had already been removed from the palace in 
the days preceding the latter's death, and in order to 
avoid an impending scandal, he simply put it out of 
anybody's power to carry further, depredations which 
would be followed by such serious consequences. 

To a man as masculine in his thoughts as the young 
Emperor, the dramatic effect which was always ascribed 
to him as of primordial importance did not even occur 
when he ordered the momentary isolation of the pal- 
ace. He wanted to prevent his reign being inaugu- 
rated by so grave a disaster, and he employed to ac- 
complish this aim the means easiest and nearest at 
hand — nothing more — without giving a thought to the 
varied and unintelligent interpretations of a world ever 
greedy for something to slaver upon. 

Nor was he even then completely ahead of his op- 
ponents, for on the 12th of the following March the 
''Deutsche Rtmdschau" actually published an extract 
from the famous diary, which brought both to the Em- 
peror and to his Chancellor a great deal of vexation and 
trouble, although the number of the paper in which it 
appeared was at once confiscated, and the man respon- 
sible for its publication promptly arrested. 

Emperor William, from the beginning of his reign, 
acted with the easy independence of the man born to 
rule, not heeding what opinion he might evoke, what 
criticism he might have to brave. Resignation and 
prudence under such circumstances would have been 
the most reprehensible of virtues. 

The man is proved by the hour! 

Before concluding this chapter, and while in the ex- 

162 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

planatory strain, it may be as well to elucidate another 
point which seems to have been excessively vexatious 
to the Anglo-Saxon public. 

Why was one of William's first acts to order the disuse 
of the name of " Friedrichskron" conferred upon the 
" Neues-Palais" by the " Frtedrichers " a fortnight be- 
fore Frederick's death ? The young Emperor was taxed 
openly, when this became known, with having "gratui- 
tously entered upon a course of demonstrative disrespect 
towards his father's memory.'" 

This is one of the occasions when the world at large 
made distinctly a fool of itself. Now the world should 
not make a fool of itself "en masse." It is not seemly, 
and such a course of conduct includes the risk — never an 
agreeable one to take — of exciting hearty laughter in 
those who know. 

History, dry and musty though it be, hath one ex- 
cellent purpose — that to enlighten ignorance about the 
sometimes obscure causes of many a deed which "d 
prima-vista" seems incomprehensible. Let us, there- 
fore, dig into the yellowing pages recording the Seven 
Years' War, or, rather, those immediately following it, and 
we will find the why and the wherefore of William's edict. 

The building of the " Neiies Palais" — new to-day but 
in name — was begun by Frederick the Great — who might 
well also have been called the " Tireless " — after he had 
emerged from that long war and needed something fresh 
to occupy his active mind and superabundant energies. 
Also, the wily Monarch was by no means sorry to de- 
monstrate to those who believed him totally ruined, that 
their supposition was both untrue and impertinent, 
since he could devote in six years — that is, from 1763 
to 1769 — the, for those times of "corvee," really enor- 
mous sum of $10,000,000 to the completion of this new 
undertaking. 

163 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

It was a place of magnificent proportions, of superb 
halls and broad staircases, filled with a dazzling wealth 
of beatity which could not fail to impress all on-lookers. 
Around it, stretching away in all directions, was a glo- 
rious park, while immediately beneath the countless 
windows were a huge "Cour d'Honneur," and lovely gar- 
dens, made to blossom in the cruel north like a damask 
rose in the desert. 

Frederick the Great possessed, as every one knows, a 
deep sense of humor, and never bowed to any lament- 
able necessity for deceit. Moreover, he was a man who 
treated and spoke of women as a class — creatures to 
be dealt with successfully or not, according to no gener- 
ality or maxim. 

Three women had until the peace of Hubertusburg 
given him a considerable amount of what is called in 
French, " du fil a retordre," or, in other words, these three 
Graces had tangled the threads of his Sovereign life so 
intricately that few men could have extricated them- 
selves as he did from the perils and difficulties with 
which they had beset his way. These three Graces were 
Empress Elizabeth-Petrovna of Russia, Empress Maria- 
Theresa of Austria, and Madame de Pompadour — Em- 
press of the King of France's heart! This being the 
case, the victorious Prussian King, with an irony which 
in those days was thought both witty and amusing, 
and which only our deplorably "bourgeois" epoch could 
gibe at — reared upon the dome of his beloved palace 
three figures representing these superbly beautiful wom- 
en in the act of eternally upholding the Prussian Crown, 
which they had done their very best to snatch from him. 

The irony may have been "risqtiee," but the eigh- 
teenth century was somewhat given to that sort of 
thing, and when a man has just gone through seven 
years of the bitterest life-and-death struggle, he shows a 

164 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

great deal of "esprit" indeed in contenting himself with 
merely immortalizing the lovely shapes of his fair but 
relentless enemies. 

Be this, however, as it may, it is a patent fact that 
Frederick the Great is held, and justly so, in especial 
veneration by his Imperial descendant, William II., 
and that the " Neucs -Palais " was from his earliest child- 
hood a favorite residence. There he romped with his 
brother Henry in the spacious, high - ceiled nurseries, 
and both royal boys thought even then proudly of their 
illustrious ancestor, of his indomitable energy, his ex- 
traordinarily sagacious statesmanship, and his wellnigh 
unequalled glory as a war lord. When, therefore, 
those who had done so much to embitter his own life; 
when, I say — not his dying father, as has erroneously 
been stated, but his father's party — the vexatious, 
tactless " Friedrichcrs" had the incomparable audacity 
to coolly change the name of the pet achievement and 
principal memorial of Prussia's national hero in order 
to assert their own importance and arrogance, he made 
immediate use of his newly acquired power to erase 
this piece of vandalism and to reinstate the old order 
of things. 

Those who blame him for it display, in my humble 
opinion, a good deal more than a crass ignorance of all 
that had gone before. It is not good always to meddle 
with the past, for 

" Who when they slash and cut to pieces, 
Do so with civilest addresses?" 



CHAPTER VIII 

When William began his career in the army, his Im- 
perial grandfather, in a speech memorable for its quiet 
and convincing eloquence, reviewed the policy of the 
House of Hohenzollern. Passing back two hundred 
and fifty years, to the days when the ambitions of that 
Hoiise were circumscribed by the frontiers of the petty 
Baltic principality of Brandenburg, he instanced the 
conduct of each of his predecessors: Frederick William, 
the Great Elector, and his son, Frederick I., who first 
gras^jcd, the one the essentials of royal power, the 
other its outward symbol, the Crown; Frederick Will- 
iam I. and Frederick the Great, who by wisdom in 
council and courage in the field extended and rendered 
firm and permanent the Monarchy, thus making possi- 
ble that splendid recuperative effort which, under the 
direction of the third Frederick William, not only drag- 
ged Prussia from the grasp of Napoleon, but, England 
aiding, gave him his death-blow. He touched upon 
each King down to the time when he himself had in- 
herited the Throne, and showed that the attention and 
energies of each one, the strongest as well as the least 
successful, had been concentrated upon the army; that 
it was upon the army that the greatness of the Father- 
land had always rested, and to which was due every 
accession of territory from the acquisition of the name 
and province of Prussia from Poland, in the seventeenth 
century, down to the conquest of Alsace - Lorraine in 

1871. 

166 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

He exhorted the young man from this very outset of 
his career to cHng to the unvarying and well-proven 
traditions of his family, to build the edifice of his reign 
upon this sure corner-stone, that had been tested by 
his ancestors; to spare no care or pains, to consider no 
detail too small, no jot or tittle of military organization 
as negligible or insignificant, but to devote himself to, 
and to rely upon, first, last, and all the time, the army 
— always the army! 

William II. is before all things a soldier. He has 
followed to the letter the instructions of his august 
grandsire; he has done more for the army and navy of 
his country than any of the Sovereigns who preceded 
him on the Throne; and yet, with that peculiar bent 
towards indiscriminate blame which the world has found 
fit to display towards him, he is accused even to-day of 
' ' exultant militarism. ' ' 

The first proclamation to his soldiers, to which I al- 
luded in the last chapter, and which he closed by sa}'"- 
ing, "We belong to each other, I and the army; thus we 
were horn for one another; and firmly and inseparably 
will we hold together, whether it is God's will to give us 
peace or storm," was imputed to him as a piece of un- 
warrantable boastfulness, which aroused, as one intel- 
ligent author kindly states, "the contemptuous laughter 
of Europe!'' while another, equally brilliant and apposite, 
is good enough to inform his readers that "an evil day 
for Germany has daivncd with the advent of this presump- 
tuous youth !" and that "a groan of despairing disgust is 
rising from every part of tJie globe luhere people are ivatch- 
ing German affairs !" — this is textual. 

Calumny is a disease, but so is wilful misapprehen- 
sion — a disease which spreads, eating its unwholesome 
way through invisible tissues. It reaches the Sovereign 
on his gilded throne just as securely and cruelly as the 

167 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

poor man in his hovel, because it is based on hes, and 
it creates in those submitted to its baneful influence a 
sort of nausea of the soul infinitely hard to bear. It 
tarnishes the cleanliness and sensitive delicacy of the 
purest and most innocent; to some natures it causes a 
feeling of shame and personal degradation, to others 
fits of impotent fury, for against its insidious assaults 
no cure is of avail. It is a swollen river rolling on its 
obstinate way ; a rank morsel the flavor of which never 
becomes stale to the human palate; a sea the unfathom- 
able depths of which are still unexplored ; a mountain of 
which the dizzy heights have never been quite reached ; 
an evil magician freezing warm rivers of love as he goes, 
easily fording cold streams of hatred and stepping vic- 
toriously through vast plains where strange growths are 
bom beneath his feet, and where he leaves behind him 
a track of tears, humiliation, and dread. 

The only effect wilful misapprehension or misinter- 
pretation or any other sort of injustice has ever had upon 
William II. is to make his eyes flash with a dull blue 
gleam — which is rather terrifying to behold — for his 
philosophy is that of a rare school, not solely confined to 
making the best of other people's troubles. His own 
difficulties have been too great not to have taught him 
how to meet unfairness with contempt; and so, when 
meeting with it, with a sort of quick mental jerk — as 
if making an almost mechanical effort to recover a mo- 
mentarily wavering balance — he resumes his every-day 
attitude as if nothing had come to disturb his tranquillity. 

On the 1 8th of June, 1888 — that is, three days after 
his father's death — he gave out a manifesto to the Prus- 
sian people, concluding with words which have evident- 
ly been ever since then constantly before his eyes, since 
his deeds during the past sixteen years have fairly mir- 
rored them: 

x68 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

"/ have vowed to Almighty God that, after the cx- 
aniple of my forefathers, I will be a just and clement 
Prince to iny people, that I will foster piety and the fear 
of God, and that I will protect the peace, promote the 
welfare of the country, be a helper to the poor and dis- 
tressed, and a true guardian of the right!'' 

Yet tliat persistent enmity with which he has been 
viewed, that unalterable prejudice with which the 
world has chosen to read something repellent between 
the lines of a straightforward and noble reign, elected 
to call this "a vainglorious harangue!" Truly^ man is 
an ugly animal, ever seeking whom he may devour! 
William II., during those first days, when from the rest- 
less multitude came a dull, continuous roar as of a 
m.uddy disturbed ocean, was certainly enabled to add 
to his experiences of the world and its ways many fur- 
ther illustrations tending towards contempt of it. 
"Mais telle est la vie I" 

When Emperor William II. gave forth to his people 
that he would for the first time open the Reichstag on 
the 25th of July, 1888, a great curiosity compelled all 
Germany's minor Sovereigns to come in person, or to 
cause themselves to be represented by their Heirs-Ap- 
parent, and, indeed, that imposing ceremony turned 
out to be the most extraordinarily brilliant of its kind 
ever performed at Berlin. 

The young Emperor's entrance created a sensation. 
Accompanied by the aged Regent of Bavaria and the 
old King of Saxony, he moved slowly and with the 
natural dignity which, until that day, had remained 
unperceived by the greater number of those present, 
while an almost mysterious stillness seemed to envelop 
him. His slim, graceful figure had acquired something 
almost solemn in its appearance from the long velvet 
mantle falling in rich folds about him, and his stern 

169 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

face looked to unusual advantage beneath the eagle- 
crested silver helmet he wore. 

As a pageant, this particular Reichstag-opening was 
gorgeous and impressive beyond compare, and as a tri- 
umph, few men ever knew one greater than that day 
brought to William, for from the very moment when he 
cast his eyes upon the dazzling picture that the crowd of 
superbly uniformed Princes and great dignitaries com- 
posed in the magnificent hall, he realized that for the 
first time he held his public in the hollow of his hand. 
It was not in his nature to find solace and consolation for 
long years of injustice in the spontaneous homage of an 
assembly of people hitherto obdurate and recalcitrant; 
but he could not forbear for one fleeting second to glance 
into the one pair of eyes wherein tenderness and sym- 
pathy had constantly glowed for him, as if to lay these 
his first laurels at the feet of the young Empress, who, 
draped in the long crepe veils of deep mourning, with 
no relief to it save that afforded by the marvellous fair- 
ness of her skin and the ghtter of some Orders, stood 
behind him, looking better than she had ever done in 
that contrast of blond comeliness with the sombre robe 
and head-dress she wore. 

On the topmost step of the dais, erect, motionless, and 
holding in one hand the parchment whereon his speech 
was engrossed, while the other grasped the hilt of his 
great sword, this new Emperor, whom every one had 
distrusted, aroused boundless astonishment and amaze. 
The purple and gold of the Throne shone behind him, 
and when he spoke, the melody of a voice, marvellously 
tuned to the highest expression of human feeling and 
of human eloquence, rolled through the silence of the 
lofty hall, with an impressiveness so utterly unexpected 
that its peroration was greeted by a low murmur of 
genuinely enthusiastic admiration. The cynical hearers, 

170 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

who had come disposed to cavil and to sneer, and who 
had prophesied much evil, were smitten with a momen- 
tarily sincere remorse, and two great tears stole down 
the cheeks of the woman whom this cynicism and in- 
justice towards her idolized Consort had so grievously 
wounded, and fell on the sparkling diamonds of her Orders. 

Nor was there wanting in this Emperor's dignity the 
sympathetic touch that is as the stamp upon the gold, 
for as, in the momentary hush that followed the address, 
Bismarck advanced to receive the scroll, and bowed his 
gray head to kiss the hand of his young Sovereign, 
William gently withdrew it, smiling, and slightly moving 
his head with a gesture of negation. It was a gracious 
tribute from youth to age, from the one who puts on 
the armor to him who is about to take it off. 

" When the time comes he will astonish Europe!'' so had 
Gortchakow spoken. One could always rely implicitly 
upon the predictions of that strange Muscovite Wizard! 
Was, then, this imposing Monarch, so full of authority 
and impressive eloquence, the taciturn, sombre, silent 
youth so often accused of temper and of sullenness? 
He was not yet thirty and looked younger on that day, 
although past sorrow and pain had marked two deep 
lines on either side of the firmly chiselled lips; the stead- 
fast, sapphire-hued eyes sparkled with determination, 
and conveyed in some indefinite way the impression that 
this Monarch was in his elem^ent, that he had glided into 
a position for which he was especially created, and that 
the calm, speculative scrutiny with which he faced his 
hearers would unhesitatingly separate the chaff from 
the valuable grain among those serried, multi-colored 
ranks. This soldier-King would not rest, it seemed plain, 
until he had done his duty to the uttermost end, and the 
faint shadow of a smile hovering now upon his clear-cut 
features was emphatically not one of approval. 

la 171 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

There is no man who can boast that he is free from 
tlie trammels of duty, for duty is a certainty from which 
none can escape; but the duties which henceforth de- 
volved upon this particular Anointed of the Lord were 
truly titanic in their proportions, and none but a man of 
his indomitable energy could have trained himself so per- 
fectly to assume them under the galling volleys of abuse 
levelled at him for years, without wavering and faltering 
at some time or another. His gallant work lay now be- 
fore him quite clearly. He had sworn to accomplish it 
in its entirety, and the last sixteen years have proved 
that he spoke naught else but the truth. 

And what of Prince Bismarck? Was the new Ruler 
of the German Confederation really, as the Liberal party 
claimed, completely in the grasp of his great Chancellor .? 
There, again, tongues wagged far faster than truth should 
have allowed! The Hohenzollems are a stiff-backed, 
masterful race, extraordinarily opposed to anything but 
personal government, not much given to accepting ad- 
vice, clinging every one of them with unimpaired strength 
to the old kingly traditions of Prussia. 

Constitutionalism and the acceptance of modern gov- 
ernmental ideas were a mistake in that region, as Em- 
peror William L had found out, and bitterly to his cost, 
in 1862. His kindly heart revolted against the idea of 
adopting violent measures to defend the Monarchy 
against its countless enemies, and of being, perchance, 
forced to sweep the streets of his capital with grape- 
shot in defence of law and order. This accounts for his 
sagacious resolve to recall from Paris, where he was 
exercising the functions of Ambassador, the one man 
capable of helping him in so sore a dilemma. 

Otto von Bismarck was an exceptional man in work, 
deed, and thought; his soldierly frame and grim, hard 
features betrayed so much at one glance. Like many 

172 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

great men he found his "metier" by accident, when his 
King hurriedly sent for him, and officially appointed 
him Minister of his House and of Foreign Affairs, 
secretly charging him to make Prussia walk straight in 
the path of duty, without the help — or hinderance — of 
a Parliament. 

The quick defiance hurled by the Liberals to the Con- 
servatives had drawn Count Bismarck from the gay, 
frivolous French capital to the dreary city on the Spree, 
where the very paving-stones were about to be dyed 
with blood, and where deadly hatred awaited him. The 
sulphurous smoke of revolution filled his nostrils when 
he arrived, but his upraised finger and his severe, un- 
reassuring eyes produced an almost magical effect upon 
the turbulent rioters. 

It sometimes is thus when a man whose courage is 
practically without bounds and whose scruples are not 
numerous makes a sudden appearance upon such a 
scene. He made from the first no secret of his inde- 
pendence of all political parties, nor of the fact that he 
was, above everything else, the man of the King, and 
assumed, with admirable serenity, the anomalous po- 
sition of a non-Royal personage who runs a Monarch's 
risks. 

Bismarck was a born Ruler. His great knowledge of 
political, governmental, and military subjects, his in- 
stinctive divination of men's motives, saved him from 
the many pitfalls that usually lie concealed in the path 
of all who assume the prerogatives of Sovereign power 
without occupying a well-defended Throne, and during 
those foreboding days after his return from Paris he 
had many an occasion to prove what metal he was made 
of. Indeed, he was a surprise to those who had only 
looked upon him as a clever diplomat, in spite of his 
martial appearance, for there was a resolution in his 

173 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

harsh eyes which gave, I have been told, those who 
met them then an unpleasant shock. 

The relations between the King and his Minister were 
something quite apart, and not without their touching 
element. First of all, they were genuinely and deeply 
fond of one another, true and loyal to each other always. 
When one watched them together — were it but for a 
few minutes — the perfect sympathy existing between 
them fairly rose up and buffeted one in the face. 

As love is inexplicable, so is such a friendship. No 
man born of woman can explain precisely the why and 
the wherefore of such things, and, moreover, there is 
nothing that brings men so close together as a common 
grievance or a common danger. In inost cases, how- 
ever, there is sure to arise, sooner or later, in such sit- 
uations a spirit of competition, of jealousy even. No 
such feeling ever crept between King William of Prussia 
and Otto von Bismarck during the long years of their 
intimacy. 

There existed between those two men many an anal- 
ogy. The same strict attention to the matter in hand, 
a mutual and common respect for perseverance and 
power of endurance, and a quiet, superior capacity for 
settling down '' de concert'' without delay to the regula- 
tion of necessary details, which made them go wonder- 
fully smoothly in a sort of idealized double-harness. 
Also, one cannot conceive of it as possible to have edu- 
cated the manliness out of either of them, which is one 
of the highest compliments one can pay to their joint 
memory. 

Their respective status, too, had this of good in it, 
that there could be no serious thought of real rivalry., 
that in the work they did together there need be no 
question of first and last; and be it said in justice 
to Bismarck, that one of the finest traits of his char- 

174 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

acter was the fashion in which he invariably effaced him- 
self officially before his Royal Master. Indeed, during 
the last eighteen years of the latter's life, his devoted 
Chancellor carried the fear of wounding this august 
friend's sensitiveness to so great an extent that he ab- 
solutely declined to appear either at the opera or at any 
other public place of amusement, lest the popular ova- 
tions to which his presence invariably gave rise should 
be as loud and enthusiastic as those that greeted the old 
Sovereign on similar occasions. 

Little did either of these wonderfully matched friends 
think that the intimacy inaugurated by the revolution- 
ary troubles of 1862 was to run a smooth and steady 
course, extending from thence throughout this strange 
and perilous pilgrimage that we call life, without their 
even for an instant losing their kinship of mutual esteem 
and respect. 

It was difficult for the old Chancellor to realize when 
William II. ascended the Throne that he no longer had 
to deal with the old and valued patron who had so con- 
stantly played into his hands, nor that the blue-eyed 
baby whom he had dandled on his knee, the youth 
he had counselled often and treated as he would one 
of his own children, was now his Sovereign Master. 
Difficult, too, it was for the young Emperor to act other- 
wise than in a quasi - filial way towards his beloved 
grandfather's old friend and adviser. On both sides the 
position was a terribly thorny and delicate one, demand- 
ing oceans of mutual tact and forbearance to make it 
at all bearable. 

I have always deeply sympathized with William in 
that regard, for I remember how greatly taken aback I 
was when, after returning from my first wedding-trip, 
I found myself confronted in my husband's household 
by a pearl of a steward who had reigned there supreme 

175 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

since my grandfather-in-law's time, and who was so 
precious, so admirable, and so imbued with a sense of 
these quaHties that to offer, not a reprimand — that was, 
of course, quite out of the question — but a mere observa- 
tion, savored of unpardonable ingratitude, not to say 
downright brutality. There was in that old man's 
eyes an intelligence that stood apart ; it seemed to refer 
to the past he so gloried in, or, perchance, to the future, 
which evidently appeared to him draped in the gloomiest 
colors, while his incorrigible leisureliness prevented a 
rendering of full justice to his present powers. These 
eyes used to rest upon me with a sort of wandering at- 
tention when I ventured to propose the slightest altera- 
tion in his adamantine laws, and there was something 
in his attitude that denoted such cruel and unmerited 
reproach, and in the tones of his voice a sort of respect- 
ful revolt, never rising to argument nor descending to 
remonstrance, which made my own position quite un- 
tenable. The truth is that it would have been a hope- 
less one as well, had not Providence intervened, rather 
drastically, alas! as far as this irreplaceable and worthy 
functionary was concerned, for, as befitted his lofty 
opinion of himself, he was laid low by that aristocratic 
malady called rich-man's gout, to such an extent that 
he had to be pensioned off, and that his place in my 
realm knew him no more. 

William II., shortly after ascending the Throne, l:>e- 
came aware of the urgent necessity of taking immediate 
steps to prevent Bismarck from handicapping him too 
heavily, by the preponderance he strove to retain in 
matters governmental, and also to make him under- 
stand, as gently and affectionately as possible, that 
he, the Emperor, intended to reign alone in Prussia. 

At first the aged Chancellor failed to recognize the 
gravity of the peril confronting him. He had dur- 

176 




THE EMPEROR A FEW YEARS AFTER HIS ACCESSION 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

ing too many years pervaded in a subtle but all- 
powerful fashion the whole atmosphere of Prussia to 
imagine the possibility of being relegated to a secondary 
place; but at last, to his almost pathetic bewilderment, 
it began to dawn upon him that he had stumbled in 
the dark upon a force far greater than himself. 

All at once he became restless and full of suspicion, 
for, poor old man! not only was the happiness of his re- 
maining years at stake, but also the future of that Bis- 
marckian dynasty which he had fondly hoped to found. 
He had dreamed of seeing, before he died, his eldest 
son as powerful in Germany as he was then himself, and 
he proceeded to charge upon the impassable obstacles 
suddenly raised before him with all his old, reckless self- 
confidence. 

Quite undisturbed, cool, courteous, friendly to the 
last, the young Emperor awaited his attack, for he un- 
derstood perfectly that the time for battle had come, 
and, possessing in a marked degree that greatest power 
of all, which consists in going right inside the mind of 
another and of divining the things that are there, he 
was quite certain to easily thwart every plot concerted 
to circumvent him. He said nothing, imparted no con- 
fidences to any one, betrayed no haste nor impatience, 
but stood firm as a rock, armed ''cap-a-pie," a strangely 
peaceful but very grim figure, difficult to assail. His 
attitude was extraordinarily forcible, yet quite devoid 
of violence, and might have been characterized as won- 
derfully weather-wise. 

To Prince Bismarck, however, it was dreadfully un- 
satisfactory, and served to increase by leaps and bounds 
his feverish irritability, which was soon to be lashed 
into a white fury of indescribable magnitude. The 
storm was approaching, premonitory lightnings ran over 
the aged Chancellor's heavens, making the sky seem 

177 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

darker for their passage. He himself showed a sur- 
prising lack of self-restraint, and losing what age and 
fatigue had left him of that wonderful sagacity in mat- 
ters political, for which he was so justly famed, he 
blundered heavily several times. 

Behind his half - closed vizor William peered forth 
into the tempest. There was no question of fending 
off such torrents of newspaper attack, and threats 
either to resign or to join the opposite camp, as his 
maddened Chancellor used for weapons; indeed, the 
onslaught seemed in no way to discompose the young 
Emperor, who watched it all with a slight smile of amuse- 
ment, which was full of significance to the initiated. 

Bismarck, meanwhile, grew bolder and bolder, less 
and less guarded. His own opinion of himself rose to 
dizzier and dizzier heights, and brought him to that pass 
where master and servant seem to stand equal before 
the levelling potency of a sorely embittered personal 
feeling. 

The autocratic airs which the struggling Chancellor 
and his somewhat rough - natured son, Herbert, gave 
themselves at that time would have infuriated a man 
less sure of himself and less merciful than William. 
He never forgot for a moment, however, how mighty 
and superb a figure in German history Bismarck really 
had been; constantly he remembered also, that the 
Berserker fight now going on was waged by an en- 
feebled old man, who was slowly being wedged into a 
corner by his, William's, uncompromisingly steel-like 
but velvet-gloved grip, and under no circumstances did 
he allow himself to display anything but the deepest 
kindness, and a courtesy and indulgence which were, 
perchance, but a greater aggravation to his brusque and 
obstinate opponent. 

He made a point during the last days of this extraor- 

178 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

dinary conflict to dine several times "en grand gala" at 
Prince Bismarck's palace in the Wilhelmstrasse, and of 
talking sympathetically and most graciously to his de- 
pressed and cruelly pre - occupied host. Nor was this 
a clever dodge, or the play of a cat with a helpless 
mouse, but the outcome of the absolutely genuine af- 
fection which, at the bottom of his heart, William still 
bore the man who had been the ideal of his whole youth 
— the man for whom he would always entertain a deep 
personal reverence as the most illustrious servant of 
his Dynasty, and the foremost among the creators of 
the new German Empire. Every one of his actions, nay, 
the slightest of his words, was marked by the most deli- 
cate and high-bred courtesy, and he certainly did all 
that lay within his power to avoid giving unnecessary 
pain to his doomed Chancellor. 

Our lives have a knack of reaching strangely back 
into the lives of our grandfathers; the beginnings made 
there come down into our daily existences, shaping 
our thoughts and actions; and that which just then 
stood between William II. and Prince Bismarck — as 
far as William was concerned, at any rate — was not the 
present need of his services, but the fading rays of 
glory still sparkling as a dazzling halo around the head 
of this giant among European statesmen, and the tra- 
ditions of respect, gratitude, and admiration for the old 
Chancellor inherited by all bearing the name of Hohen- 
zollern. 

" 'Tis one thing to be tempted, 
Another thing to fall!" 

At last, however, the crisis came. In the course of 
an interview between the Emperor and his tottering 
Chancellor, when William was expressing with all pos- 
sible gentleness his natiiral disapproval of some un- 

179 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

authorized act of Bismarck, the latter, in a sudden 
rush of irrepressible anger, gave voice to the very words 
that it was uppermost in his mind to restrain. Sudden- 
ly his trembling lips, almost, it would seem, in defiance 
of his own will, blurted out the old familiar and effective 
threat of instantaneous resignation from office. 

The Emperor said nothing either in protest or other- 
wise, and passed on to other subjects, leaving his erst- 
while so wily Premier a prey to the uttermost depths 
of humiliation and of self-contempt. He simply had 
nothing to say! His mind had suddenly become blank, 
and with a strangely touching refinement of kindness, 
the Emperor managed to put a close to the audience 
without seeming to notice the old man's profound per- 
turbation. 

Two hours afterwards, however, an Imperial aide-de- 
camp came in the Emperor's name to receive the official 
and written resignation so incautiously proffered. He 
found Bismarck smarting under a sense of injury most 
exasperatingly indefinite, although his mood savored 
strongly of the disgust of the outwitted ; his eyes flashed 
dangerously — so the aide-de-camp remarked afterwards 
— and he sent back an evasive reply, explaining that 
he had as yet not found time to write the resignation 
out, but would do so later, and present it in person to 
His Majesty on the morrow. 

At that moment a sudden ray of hope shot, no doubt, 
athwart the future into which Bismarck was staring as 
if hypnotized. Yes! he would stoop to pleading, if 
necessary; he would use all the powers at his command 
to reawaken the tremendous personal influence and 
magnetism he knew himself to possess, in order to se- 
cure the reconsideration of the Imperial verdict; but 
he had once again reckoned without his host, for not only 
did he find himself unable to obtain an audience from 



TMPERATOR ET REX 

his Sovereign on the next day, without the aid of ridic- 
ulous persistency, but he could not avoid the inexor- 
able aide-de-camp, who seemed determined — "bieii 
contrc son gre" assuredly — to preempt a permanent 
domicile in the "salon d'attente" adjoining the Prince's 
study in the Wilhelmstrasse, and who, quiet, self-con- 
tained, deeply respectful, but intrepid, patiently await- 
ed that once too often threatened resignation. 

Caught in his own trap as helplessly as any yearling of 
diplomacy, Bismarck, cruelly mortified and unspeak- 
ably indignant, was thus forced to sign his own dismissal, 
and with the almost supernatural rapidity with which 
such news travels, it became known a few minutes later 
across the whole length and breadth of the Prussian 
capital that the Iron Chancellor had fallen. 

It is impossible not to feel the sincerest pity for Bis- 
marck at that moment, when he was left to gulp down 
as best he might his nauseating surprise. Some one 
who saw him then told me that for several days his face 
remained livid, that the blue of his dim old eyes seemed 
to be suddenly faded to an ashen gray, and that he 
talked in a pitiful, lifeless voice, as if his whole being 
was contracted with horror and with pain. Whatever 
Bismarck had done to deserve his fate, he was now an 
object of such pity that before it, all partisanship, all 
personal hatred disappeared. 

Once again a murmur of "Royal ingratitude'' ran 
throughout Germany, and strong and hardened though 
the Emperor was against unjust criticisms, yet this time 
his nerves were all a-tingle with exasperation, for if ever 
a man had shown patient gratitude it was he, espe- 
cially in this instance, and he knew it. 

There was, indeed, a strange irony in this sudden 
"volte- face" of a large part of the German people with 
regard to one so long and so loudly proclaimed their 

i8i 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

tormentor. Yesterday many had been unanimous in 
their curses, to-day they were ready to rise up as one 
man to call him blessed — this Iron Chancellor beneath 
whose relentless hand Kingdoms had trembled and 
been shaken to dust! This almost hysterical see- 
sawing back towards him, this complete "ratting," 
this sudden genuflection before the enemy, had its 
good side, however, for the Berlinese made the de- 
throned Chancellor's departure the occasion for a great 
popular demonstration, and it is well that they did so, 
since the spectacle of the cold-blooded desertion of so 
truly great a man would have been a new offence to 
human nature. 

It must be confessed that Bismarck had nobody to 
thank but himself for his downfall. He had never 
cared whether he was loved or hated ; he had contemptu- 
ously thrust from him all that was not strength and 
cunning; he had displayed a callous audacity which 
had never poured oil on troubled waters, but cast it 
carelessly on flames; and, at the last, when his blood 
was hot and his brain fermenting like yeast because he 
had found his master, wrath for once had clouded his 
keen perceptions, and he had committed the fatal mis- 
take which had laid him low. 

The survival of the strongest had been his law; why 
did he now demur at it, because he no longer was the 
strongest, because his hour had come, and in one brief 
moment all his greatness had turned to ashes in his 
mouth ? But his sense of humiliation and fury at being 
thwarted had been too deep. Temper is always a Dad 
adviser. It had advised him badly during those last 
few months, when he had dealt wholesale in thunder 
and lightning. Alas! the terrible, slow kindling, but 
overwhelming anger of this great Northerner had been 
his destruction. 

182 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

The young Emperor had gone patiently through to 
the end, always hoping against hope to be spared the 
pain of separating from his old friend. He had found 
out some things which had surprised him, however, 
and gradually he had become convinced that for the 
honest accomplishment of his purpose, for Germany's 
welfare, especially, the removal of Bismarck was im- 
perative. His whole self-training had been one of de- 
votion to duty, so now, as all through his previous life, 
did he do what he considered his duty, although re- 
luctantly, and only when he had been pushed to his 
very last entrenchments. 

The last straw had been Prince Bismarck's extraor- 
dinary conduct with regard to the Berlin International 
Labor Congress, which William had set his heart upon, 
thinking that this might, perchance, be a means other 
than Bismarck's harsh measures for solving the socialis- 
tic and labor problems, which were proving more and 
more vexatious throughout Europe, and had lately be- 
come especially acute in Germany. 

The idea was a wonderful one — of that there can be no 
doubt — and a generous. It was dictated by one of those 
unselfish impulses which, if the world were different 
from what it is, would have resulted in good spreading 
over Europe like sunlight over a ripening field; but 
the warm-hearted young Sovereign had yet to learn one 
bitter lesson, and that was that any endeavor to try and 
raise the lower orders, to educate the masses above the 
station which they can hope to occupy in life, is to open 
wider the door to nihilism, socialism, riots, ingratitude, 
and all their accompanying evils, and that any such 
project is bound to be crumpled up by the treachery of 
the socialistic leaders and agitators themselves. Doing 
good to mankind wholesale does not pay; the angels in 
heaven might devise such plans, but even they could 

183 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

not carry them out here below. It is a sad but undeni- 
able fact that men pick to pieces and degrade everything 
that is done to pull them out of the mire, and one of 
which Bismarck was well aware. 

Indeed, it is only fair to say here that, realizing the 
Utopian character of the scheme, and seeing its imprac- 
ticability, he at first argued with the Emperor on the 
subject " sotto quattr' occhi," but finding that his new 
Sovereign was not easily argued out of anything, he 
resorted, alas! to other and less laudable means in order 
to prevent the Conference from taking place. First of 
all, he proceeded to loudly ridicule the whole idea, and, 
what was quite unpardonable, caused it to be scoffed 
at and treated with derision in the press, which he con- 
trolled both at home and abroad. 

The Emperor had the pleasure of reading in cold type 
that when the High and Mighty are eager to dabble in 
socialistic schemes they should put on old coats, wear 
red silk scarfs about their necks, and adopt slouch hats 
as their ordinary head -gear — soft, shabby hats that 
can be drawn completely down so as to conceal their 
visages; also, that the realism, the sordid details of 
such work as William proposed to undertake, were not 
romantic, and would fail to prove as "entertaining as 
this august dabbler in charity deemed it to be." 

In one word, Bismarck sought in every possible and 
impossible way to deter William from persevering in 
his project, and when at last he had to acknowledge him- 
self beaten on that ground, he committed with extraor- 
dinary lack of tact and loyalty his supreme ''betise," 
namely, that of negotiating privately with the various 
party leaders, with a view to the postponement, if not 
the complete annihilation, of the famous Conference. He 
even communicated with the President of the Helvetic 
Confederation with a view to arranging a Labor Con- 

184 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

ference at Berne, which would distract the attention of 
the interested classes from Berlin. This was decidedly 
going a step too far, and treating Prussia's King too 
much like a little boy who is anxious to stick his fingers 
in some forbidden jar of preserves; and when he dis- 
covered this unheard-of piece of insolence, the young 
Monarch made up his mind that if he did not prompt- 
ly intervene, his autocratic and headstrong Chancellor 
would attempt to transform him into a mere cipher, 
a figure-head at the utmost, good only to look well on 
a Throne, and so he separated himself for good and aye 
from Bismarck. 

This is the true explanation, despite all other legends 
current on the subject of what it was then the fashion 
to term ''Emperor William's incredible ingratitude tow- 
ards Bismarck" and gives but one more proof of the 
phenomenal unfairness with which the Emperor was 
then invariably judged. 

As to the Conference, it did not turn out to be a suc- 
cess, probably on the principle that a flower growing 
out of place is a weed. A movement which had for its 
purpose to educate, royally feed, and gorgeously clothe 
the masses — and, incidentally, to teach them to be yet 
more discontented with their lot — but that is, perchance, 
only my gloomy way of looking at it — to raise them up 
until they drag down the classes still above them in 
their predestined return to the gutter, failed then as it 
has always failed in the past and will always fail in the 
future, until the millennium is reached, thanks to the 
masses themselves. Set a beggar on horseback and one 
knows what to expect! 

The reconciliation of the socialists with the Crown 
was not to be compassed, and the young Emperor, a 
wiser and sadder man, took the defeat of his hopes 
quietly, in his settled and self-contained fashion — like 

i8S 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

a person who has played for a big stake, and knowing 
for certain .that it is lost, does not want to play again. 
He bore it all without apparent disappointment, and 
even the members of the Conference, whom he received 
with extreme courtesy and kindness, never knew how 
very sore he felt over his failure. 

As an example of this I will here give a transla- 
tion of a short pen -sketch of William II., by Jules 
Simon, one of the members of the Conference, whose 
testimony must be regarded as singularly unbiased, 
since as a Frenchman and an ardent republican he was 
certainly not inclined by racial or political reasons to 
look with particular favor upon a Prussian Monarch. 

"The Congress," he wrote in the "Rcvuc dc Paris," 
"was held in the salons of the Chancellerie — that is, in 
Prince Bismarck's palace of the Wilhelmstrasse, al- 
though the Prince was on the eve of his disgrace. The 
Emperor was not present at our opening sdance, and 
never put in an appearance during the whole time of 
our debates, but we were all invited to a great reception 
at Court, to a concert given in honor of the Prince of 
Wales and to a banquet given in our own. These 
Monarchical 'fetes' were an interesting spectacle for 
me, who have not been brought up in the lap of Royalty, 
and for my French colleagues, who had not even known 
Napoleon III. 

" The Imperial palace of Berlin in no way resembles 
the Tuileries; it is an immense building, very lofty, 
forming a quadrangle around a large ' Cour d'Honnetir,' 
and ends by a vast garden-like terrace. The salons 
where the Emperor habitually receives are at the very 
top floor, and we were requested to ascend a staircase, 
which had it not been brilliantly lighted and construct- 
ed of white marble, might easily have been mistaken 
for an ' e scalier de service.' There is another one, im- 

i86 




AFTER A HARD MORXIXG's WORK 



IMT'ERATOR ET REX 

mense and superb, but destined for Royal personages 
only. We landed near an ordinary-sized door, guarded 
by two splendid and gigantic soldiers, which admitted 
directly to the salons, where the invited guests were al- 
ready assembled. 

"These salons are very numerous, and did not seem 
to me to contain many pictures or ornaments; but you 
will easily understand that little attention was granted 
to such details, since we were all intent upon watching 
the Emperor's entry. 

" Everybody gravitated towards the great doors at the 
upper end when Their Majesties were announced. The 
Emperor and Empress were bowing to right and to left, 
and spoke for a few moments to the privileged. The 
Emperor addressed a few obliging and amiable words 
to me, and so did the Empress, which is a favor rarely 
accorded. Indeed, I felt immediately that I had just 
acquired some personal dignity, and not without a lit- 
tle laugh at my own expense wondered whether I was 
not already transformed into a courtier. This feeling 
increased wonderfully when the Grand Master of Cere- 
monies requested me to walk alone immediately be- 
hind the Emperor, and to sit down on his right at the 
table. I was grateful, as I might well be, for these 
tokens of Imperial favor accorded to my country, which 
were continued during the whole time of the Congress. 

"I sat at table between the Emperor and a lady 
who I thought was the Grand - Mistress of the Robes. 
On the Emperor's left sat the Empress, and on the Em- 
press's left sat the Bishop of Breslau, my colleague as 
Vice-President of the Congress, and who has since be- 
come Cardinal Kopp, one of Germany's most illustrious 
Catholic Prelates. 

"M. de Moltke sat directly opposite to the Emperor, 
and therefore to me, also. 
13 187 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

"The Emperor was gracious enough to speak to me 
during the whole time the dinner lasted. My memory, 
unfortunately, is not sufficiently good to set down here 
all he said on that occasion, but I remember every word 
he addressed to me during my stay in Berlin, although 
precisely when spoken it is beyond my power to 
recall. 

"On the day of the great Court reception I was not 
near enough to the Throne to hear clearly, and on that 
of the concert in the White-Salon I did not come into 
personal contact with him; but he has created another 
Court, which he himself described to me, which is as 
select and envied as that of Marly under Louis XIV., 
and at which he weekly receives twenty friends. I cite 
the very words he used : ' I receive about twenty 
friends, not more, some officers, some professors; the 
public believes that we hold a sort of secret political 
council; but, on the contrary, we assemble only to have 
a little good time, to tipple {pour godailler). We speak 
of art, of literature!' He did me the honor of inviting 
me to one of those private receptions. 

"Again I went up the white marble staircase, this 
time accompanied by the Minister of Commerce, M. 
Berlepsch, our amiable and clever President; we stop- 
ped at the floor immediately beneath the salons and 
entered a large room, where there were several officers 
in uniform. I felt a little lonely and rather embarrassed, 
not knowing who was the host. It was nine o'clock 
and the place was not very well lighted, since the gleam 
of the candles was dulled by the last rays of the setting 
sun; I therefore vaguely discerned some chairs and a 
table shaped like a horseshoe, covered with a green 
rug. Really, I believed myself to be in a waiting-room, 
when a young officer, detaching himself from a group 
at the farther end of the apartment, came briskly up 

188 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

to me and asked me if I had enjoyed the visit I had 
made to Sans-Souci in the morning. 

"It was the Emperor! 

"I had visited Sans-Souci, thanks to his permission, 
and in a carriage graciously lent by him, and he ques- 
tioned me narrowly as to my impressions of the place. 
I confessed that I did not greatly admire Voltaire's 
room, which is rather overloaded with ornamentation. 
Then he spoke to me of Frederick the Great. ' I have 
seen the music-stand,' I said, 'but not the flute!' He 
laughed, and told me that I would at any rate see the 
music, for he had caused a very fine edition thereof to 
be printed, and would give me a copy. 'It will be,' 
added he, 'a souvenir of your sojourn in Berlin!' It 
would be impossible to be more courteously gracious! 
The volume was later on sent to me through the Ger- 
man Embassy in Paris. 

"As on the day of the banquet, I was told to sit down 
on the Emperor's right, and we immediately began to 
smoke and to drink beer; moreover, I had once again 
the pleasure of a long conversation with the Emperor, 
since we remained sitting there until midnight. 

"I would dearly like to be able adequately to de- 
scribe this conversation and the Emperor's person; I do 
not know whether I will succeed. I have never seen 
him out of uniform; I scarcely think that he ever wears 
anything else. On that particular evening he had on 
that of the White Hussars, and, as he is very slender, 
he looked like a young officer — a lieutenant. I had 
been told that he was partial to the Hussar uniform, 
because the hanging dolman dissimulated the stiffness 
of his left arm, but I never noticed anything peculiar 
in his attitude with or without dolman, nor even, when 
quite close to him, saw him display the slightest diffi- 
culty in using that arm. Therefore, it is only by hear- 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

say that I am acquainted with this alleged defect. The 
Emperor's face is very agreeable, his expression affable 
and good-natured, his hair is chestnut, with golden tints 
in the high lights — I speak like the old-fashioned pass- 
ports — and his complexion rather colorless but healthy, 
and somewhat tanned by open air. Truly he reminded 
me of our young Breton or Norman nobles, having their 
high-bred and charming manner. If I am to be quite 
truthful, I easily perceived behind this cheerful mien a 
something denoting that it would be best not to dis- 
agree with such a man on grave matters — a careful 
inspection of his physiognomy and aspect revealed as 
much. This side of his nature became very apparent 
to me when I saw him ' en grandc pompe ' on his Throne. 
You know the popular definition of a Throne ! ' Four 
deal boards covered with a little velvet, the strength 
of which depends on who occupies it.' I think that the 
Throne of this particular young Monarch is excessively 
solid, and he proved this two days later, when he broke 
like a pipe-stem the great Chancellor, reputed all-pow- 
erful and eternal! 

"On the gala night I refer to, the Empress was in 
deep mourning. The Emperor wore a White Hussar's 
uniform, but he was in parade dress, and nobody would 
then have mistaken him for a mere lieutenant ; under his 
arm he carried a fur-bordered kalpak, surmounted by a 
tall 'aigrette' attached by an immense diamond. His 
breast was covered with magnificent decorations from 
every comer of the globe. It was indeed an Emperor 
whom we had before us, immobile, impassive, severe, 
and, as Saint-Simon would have said, 'tripping for no 
one!' 

"Before I go any further I must tell you how he 
speaks French ! Easily? Very easily. Correctly? Very 
correctly ! Had he the slightest accent ? Not the very 

190 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

slightest! Of us two it was he who spoke the better, 
for I have a slight provincial accent, while the Emperor 
spoke like a Parisian. He asked me once, laughingly, 
what I thought of his pronunciation. 'You speak,' I 
replied, 'like a Parisian.' 'That's not surprising,' quoth 
he. ' I have a friend ' — he always speaks of his servitors 
as 'friends' — 'who was my professor during ten years, 
and who has remained here with me ever since. He is 
a Parisian and a purist. Have you noticed whether 
I ever use an unorthodox expression?' (I am not only 
an Academician but a member of the Dictionary Com- 
mission.) 

"'Once,' I said. 

"He took alarm. 

"'When?' queried he. 

"'When Your Majesty, in describing the little private 
receptions, said "to tipple" ' (pour godaiUcr). 

'"Godailler is French!' he cried, triumphantly; 'it 
is in the Academic dictionary!' 

"'It is French, but it is not used by the Academy, 
nor in Academical Salons!' 

"'I will not forget! And was that instance the only 
one?' 

"'I swear it! Your Majesty is also a purist.' 

"This seemed to please him hugely, and he allowed 
me to see that he possesses a deep knowledge of our 
literature. As I was aware that he keeps himself posted 
about every detail concerning the government of his 
vast dominions, of his army and of his navy, and as I 
now had personally been enabled to judge how extraor- 
dinarily busy is his life, I wondered how he could find 
time to read French novels. He explained to me, how- 
ever, that nothing pleased him more than to remain 
quietly at home in the evening with his wife, and that 
his invariable rule was to read a few chapters of some 

191 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

good foreign novel to her every night before retiring. 
This wonderful man, who assimilates everything with 
magical swiftness, never loses a minute. His greatest 
antipathy in French literature is Zola. 

"Out of patriotism I tried to defend my fellow-citizen 
by saying that he possessed incomparable diction and 
power of observation. 

'"Yes, he has qualities,' retorted the Emperor, 'but 
it is not that which made his success — that comes from 
the filth and villainies with which he poisons his writings. 
That is just what gives outsiders the right to judge 
severely the moral state of France at the present mo- 
ment.' 

" ' I am told that Zola is going to publish a new book,' 
he continued. ' You shall see how it will be devoured ; 
all your splendid literature will disappear before this 
sorry "chef d'truvre!"' 

"I hazarded that it would also be read in Berlin. 

'"Yes, I dare say, but with disgust, and to a far lesser 
degree. In Paris it will be in everybody's hands!' was 
the answer. 

"In this he was not quite correct, for having had the 
curiosity to stroll round next morning to some of the 
chief bookseller's shops, I found that Zola's books were 
to be found there in quantities, and I heard later that 
his vogue was yet greater in London. 

" I would have given much to coax from the Emperor 
some few political opinions, but all my efforts in that 
direction were vain, and the cleverness with which he 
evaded me on that particular field filled me with ad- 
miration. I succeeded, however, after many repeated 
and Machiavellian attacks in wrenching from him two 
sentences which I heard with pleasure. We were talk- 
ing about war in the abstract. 

'"I have thought a great deal on that subject since 

192 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

my accession,' said he, musingly, 'and I am certain 
that in my position it is better to do good to humanity 
than to try to terrify it!' and as I sought to narrow the 
question down, alluding to a possible war between our 
respective countries, he added, 'I speak with absolute 
impartiality; your army has worked hard, has made 
amazing progress; it is ready, and if by an evil chance 
there was a war between France and Germany, it would 
be difficult to predict the consequences and result of 
such a struggle. That is why I would consider any- 
body who egged them on to attack each other as a mad- 
man or a criminal.' 

"The Emperor's sincerity could not be doubted. His 
words betrayed a well-seasoned and serious conviction. 
He really desires peace and intends to maintain it as 
far as lies in his power. Moreover, William II. has 
already given several instances of his desire to be on 
friendly terms with France. The present Congress, to 
which I was invited, together with my friends, Burdeau 
and Tolain, is one of them, and many more important 
ones could be cited. 

"He was less reticent on socialistic questions, and on 
that ground I felt that I had a right to be inquisitive, 
since it was the object of my presence in Berlin to go over 
it thoroughly. I am at liberty to say that he had made 
a very conscientious study of the subject. The keen 
statesman, far more than the mere philanthrope, spoke 
in him when discussing it, and he put before me the 
growing anxiety which so grave a danger aroused in 
him. I, who am far more than anxious about it, con- 
fided to him that it would be a good fear to be more 
afraid of socialism in order to take stronger repressive 
measures, and he, with a smile, told me quite frankly 
that he was afraid that for the moment, at least, the 
present Congress, from which he had hoped so 

193 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

much, would not prove as successful as he had ex- 
pected. 

"The session of the Congress coincided with the great- 
est historical event of the German Empire. When we 
arrived in Berlin, M. de Bismarck was threatened but 
still powerful; it was rumored that the Emperor would 
ultimately ask him to resign, but that as yet he did not 
dare to do so. Nevertheless, he provoked the great 
man's offer of resignation, accepted and maintained it, 
all within twenty-four hours. At once the Chancellor 
was replaced and left Berlin. The French delegates 
dined at his house on the very eve of his fall, and I was 
enabled to talk at length with him. He was then still 
full of confidence. 

"As to the Emperor, the way in which he comported 
himself at that moment is typical. It was clear that 
he was not inclined to recognize the possibility of diffi- 
culties in his path; he knew, evidently, exactly where he 
was going; he had determined to govern alone and as- 
sumed the crushing responsibility without wincing, and 
the iron influence of the Emperor upon his capital was 
curious to behold. The name of General von Caprivi 
as Bismarck's successor was mentioned and created a 
sensation, for he was neither a politician nor a courtier, 
merely a good soldier. When it became known that 
the Emperor had selected him, nobody would at first 
believe it, especially when he was seen that very night 
eating his dinner quite alone at a little table in the 
public dining-room of the Kaiserhof. The news that 
the Emperor had conferred upon Prince Bismarck the 
almost Royal dignity of Duke of Lauenburg, was also 
at first met with incredulity, and a great lady upon 
whom I was calling, exclaimed, impulsively, 'I hope 
he will refuse!' then hung her head and appeared to re- 
gret her words. Meanwhile the fallen Chancellor was 

194 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

walking slowly up and down in his garden of the Wil- 
helmstrasse, quite alone and abandoned, save by two 
huge Ulmer dogs, his constant companions. It was 
pitiful, and as I watched him from the windows of 
our Congress-room, I felt that this neglect must have 
hurt him even more than his disgrace. 

"A lightning change took place, however, and that 
with quite fairy-like splendor, at the moment of Bis- 
marck's departure. The Berlinese turned out '<?w 
masse,' thronging the Wilhelmstrasse and all the neigh- 
boring thoroughfares, crowding even the great ' Unter 
den Linden' until traffic became absolutely blocked, 
and the ex-Chancellor entered his carriage amid the 
frenzied hurrahs of thousands upon thousands. Dur- 
ing a long time his horses could not advance, while 
flowers fell like an avalanche about his feet and filled 
the carriage. The Man of Iron was crying! Indeed, 
the multitude followed him right to the station, where 
his train had been waiting under full steam since two 
hours. 

"What was the cause of this amazing change in the 
popular attitude ? Simply the Emperor's will. He had 
expressed a desire that all honor should be done to 
Bismarck, and two millions of people had responded to 
this appeal. ' Voila tout!' and I may add that not even 
the great Czar could have testified to such an intensity 
of influence over his subjects. 

"I trust that in these short and incomplete notes my 
memory has not betrayed me. I trust that I have been 
exact. The Emperor's attitude with regard to France 
has been benevolence itself. His message to Madame 
Carnot at the time of her illustrious husband's assassina- 
tion has created a deep impression throughout my 
country. At the very moment when the melancholy 
and splendid funeral cortege was leaving for Notre* 

195 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Dame and the Pantheon, M. de Miinster, German Am- 
bassador to Paris, advised our Government that his 
Imperial Master had granted their pardon to two 
French officers condemned, one to six and the other to 
four years of incarceration in a German fortress, and 
when the thanks of the President of the Repubhc reached 
the Emperor the two prisoners were already at large. 
Therefore, M. Carnot's funeral will in history be remem- 
bered quite especially as having provoked the first real 
flash of sympathy between Germany and France. May 
it be a lasting truce — 'the truce of God!' 

(Signed) " Jules Simon." 

In my translation of the above I have purposely re- 
tained what one may term the republican simplicity 
of phrase, and the short-sentenced chattiness which is 
all very well in French, but in English seems somewhat 
bald, because I am of opinion that the " couleur-locale" 
of M. Jules Simon's style adds to the force of this short 
but pithy and veracious instantaneous portrayal. 

The wave of enthusiasm which had unfurled itself 
about Bismarck on the day of his departure from Berhn 
was succeeded by silence. As he himself said, bitterly, 
he was for a long time subjected to a sort of boycott! 
Formerly he had experienced great difficulty in keep- 
ing people away from his country-seat of Friedrichsruh, 
for everybody strove to pay court to him, or — to state 
again his own words — " everybody who wanted his good- 
will came in regular processions of humble, bowing vis- 
itors," but after his downfall he was left in galling and 
insulting solitude. 

This situation was far from inducing a resigned or 
philanthropic state of mind; indeed, his vituperations 
against the Emperor and his Government, whenever 
he managed to secure a hearer, were, to say the least, 

196 




THE EMPEROR " CROSS-COUNTRY RIDING " 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

extraordinarily embarrassing. Nothing was farther 
from his mind than such sentimentahty as grief; he had 
never been given to such soft weakness, this hard- 
hearted old warrior, and rage reigned supreme. When 
he had ruled he had done so with a rod of iron. His 
purpose had ever been inflexible and his self-control 
great, but William was the only person who had ever 
openly opposed him, and, somehow, the pill he had been 
forced to swallow, in spite of its thickly gilded coating, 
was insupportabh?- bitter. 

In fact, the very gilding contrived to give offence. 
He had long desired to be made Duke of Lauenburg — 
an old title appertaining to the House of Schleswig-Hol- 
stein — with the rank of a Sovereign, or, at least, Media- 
tized Prince; but Emperor William I. could not see his 
way to granting this desire, since it was not a matter 
to be settled entirely by his own volition. As the Head 
of an Empire made up of Allied Sovereigns, and con- 
taining many Princes who had saved little from the 
wreck of the Napoleonic wars beyond the bare recog- 
nition of their rank, and who were, therefore, not a lit- 
tle jealous of it, he had to request the sanction of his 
brother Rulers for the project, with an almost absolute 
certainty that it would be refused. 

When, therefore. Emperor William II. made him 
Duke of Lauenburg, pure and simple, without any of 
the semi-royal prerogatives for which he longed, the old 
man was deeply incensed. This meant, among other 
things, that on all State occasions at Court there were still 
some dozens of infinitesimal titular Princelets, of whom 
nobody ever hears, who would, nevertheless, take pre- 
cedence of himself, one of the most famous men in the 
world. Not only did he, therefore, ignore the Emperor's 
gift, and neglect to pay the duties accruing to the State 
on an accession to a title, but he deliberately returned to 

197 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

the post-office all mail that arrived addressed to the 
"Duke of Lauenburg" — certainly rather small conduct 
for so great a man, who, starting in life poor and 
loaded with debt, had been showered with honors and 
rendered one of the wealthiest nobles in Germany by 
the masters he had served. And, as if in his life- 
time he had not showed sufficient resentment, after the 
old Prince's death the opportunity given to his son 
and successor to pay the dues and formally assume 
the title was coolly disregarded, so that the Emperor 
was obliged to resume his gift, and to formally declare 
that the Dukedom of Lauenburg had lapsed. 

Somehow, the collapse of all his ambitions, political 
and otherwise, affected the ex-Chancellor physically, 
and increased the rheumatism and neuralgia from which 
he suffered so severely that he was now forced to be 
constantly under medical supervision. 

Henry Villard, who visited him at Friedrichsruh some 
time after his enforced retirement, wrote when describ- 
ing this short and interesting stay in the " Sachsenwald," 
that never in his whole experience did he encounter such 
a flow of keen wit, cutting sarcasm, bitter denunciation, 
and mad diatribe as that used by Bismarck in speaking 
of his downfall. 

"Some of the sayings I heard then," writes Villard, 
"were so extraordinary that if they were repeated their 
reality would probably be doubted, and certainly the 
'lese majcstc' they involve would render it unsafe for 
me to venture again on German soil. The Prince's 
countenance," he continues, "during the excited de- 
livery of those philippics, was a study! The working of 
every vein and muscle of the face showed his intense 
feelings. The play of his great eyebrows was also 
very remarkable, so was the flashing of his eyes. They 
seemed incapable of expressing affection, and their steel- 

198 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

like hardness only inspired awe. To watch the lightning 
changes of expression mirrored in them, reflecting the 
strong emotion evoked by humbled pride, wounded am- 
bition, and thwarted selfishness, and above all by the 
loss of his absolute sway, was indeed an enviable privi- 
lege. I left Bismarck with the fixed impression that 
the Prince never would or could forget or forgive those 
who caused his compulsory abdication from power, that 
he felt nothing less than implacable hatred towards them, 
that any apparent reconciliation on the Prince's part to 
the new rdgime that might follow would be only a stage- 
show and not a reality, that his thirst for revenge would 
not be quenched as long as he lived, and that he would 
improve every opportunity to gratify it." 

The young Emperor knew all this well, for Henry 
Villard was by no means the only person to whom Bis- 
marck spoke in that strain, and it must be confessed 
that it took a singularly generous breadth of soul for 
him to have not only forgiven so aggressive an attitude, 
but to have unfailingly displayed even then towards 
the infuriated old man, a respect and an affectionate 
courtesy which this lion with filed teeth and claws did 
all within his power to forfeit. 

The recluse of Friedrichsruh could not assimilate the 
idea of the German Empire continuing to exist without 
him. He had so accustomed everybody to tke idea 
that he alone insured its safe continuance that he had 
ended by believing this to be the actual truth. But 
when he found that nothing untoward happened, that, 
indeed, the German Empire had never been more pros- 
perous and peaceful than since he, Bismarck, had been 
relieved of his watch on deck ; when, especially, he could 
no longer doubt that a new era of prosperity, calm, and 
absence of friction had begun, and that the country was 
now in hands more capable than his own, his fury knew 

199 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

bounds no longer, and, blinded by rage, he belittled him- 
self most lamentably in the eyes of the world by his 
open and vociferous threats, his so-called revelations, 
and his reckless but persistent incitements to schism. 

Under all this insupportable provocation, William 
acted with a fortitude and a generosity which even his 
worst detractors cannot deny, for he steadfastly de- 
clined to sanction the slightest movement towards re- 
prisals, treated covert insults and open insolence and 
affronts with serene indifference, and never by word 
or deed gave anybody the chance to see how deeply he 
was hurt. 

Nor did his irresistible will, his defiant courage, or 
his fiery energy suffer any dimming by all he had then 
to undergo, while his calm remained quite unbroken. 
Outwardly unmoved, he watched the wild, unreasoning 
passion of the man he had just raised to so great estate 
wreak its worst, and not a finger did he lift to justify 
himself of the truly insane accusations launched both 
privately and publicly at his head. 

Three years later continued rage and mortification 
culminated in a serious attack of illness, which very 
nearly carried the old Prince off for good and all. He 
could not have selected — had he wished to do so — a surer 
manner of bringing about an offer of reconciliation from 
his Sovereign, for no sooner did the Emperor hear of 
his critical condition than he hastened to hold out 
both hands to him, entreated him to accept one of the 
Royal palaces wherein to go and recuperate, and show- 
ered innumerable kindnesses and attentions upon him. 
All these warm-hearted advances and offers were, how- 
ever, met with cold and formal rejection, and very few 
words were wasted on Bismarck's part over social con- 
ventions and courtly etiquette. 

These two men had together witnessed strange events ; 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

they had acted in concert, they had acted in direct op- 
position; the Emperor had broken Bismarck like a twig 
and Bismarck had spitefully revenged himself; and now, 
by a turn of the wheel, they were soon to find themselves 
face to face again, for when, in January, 1894, William 
II. celebrated at one and the same time his thirty-fifth 
birthday and the twenty -fifth anniversary of his ad- 
mission to the army, he wrote a graciously worded 
"manii- propria" letter to Bismarck, in which he said 
that the Prince had tarried in seclusion long enough — 
too long, longer than he, the Emperor, would have 
wished him to do, and invited him in the warmest and 
most affectionate fashion to come to Berlin for the cele- 
bration. This letter was carried to Friedrichsruh by 
an Imperial aide-de-camp, and very sulkily the in- 
wardly flattered old man consented at last to accept 
his Sovereign's invitation. 

Hatred, contempt, bitterness, were thrust out of 
sight when the Prince, carrying high his bluf? head, 
which, however, so clearly bespoke the storms still 
raging within, met Prince Henry, who had been sent 
by his Imperial brother to escort him, for even his hard 
heart could not but be touched, after a fashion, by the 
magnanimity displayed towards him. 

Everything which could possibly be done to show 
him respect was done, all Berlin cheered him, and he 
must have been indeed difficult to satisfy had he 
discovered something lacking in this magnificent recep- 
tion. He had, however, been so permanently ruffled 
by the swift disappearance of the obsequious crowds, 
when his power had been wiped away like writing off 
a slate, that nothing could ever quite soothe him again. 
He had not possessed a sufficiency of moral pluck to avoid 
playing a hopeless game, and employing cunning and 
spite as his last weapons. He knew that he had been 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

unworthy of his old self, and as he re-entered the capi- 
tal, after so many years' absence, he glanced at the peo- 
ple in the streets curiously and sarcastically beneath 
his shaggy eyebrows. But when he met the Emperor 
he grew pale to the lips. 

Never had William appeared to better advantage than 
on that occasion. There was a simple directness in his 
manner which conveyed the impression of purpose and 
of the habit of going straight to the point, very discon- 
certing to the ulcerated rancor of his guest. The Em- 
peror did not rush into conversation with him, yet his 
silence had no embarrassment in it; and when, at last, 
he spoke, it was with so much feeling, quiet dignity, 
and almost filially forgiving affection that the wonder 
in the Prince's eyes deepened, and the embarrassment 
was his. 

The meeting created an immense sensation. Bis- 
marck was a man of whom people had spoken contin- 
ually for many, many years. Two generations had 
found him a fruitful topic of conversation, without, it 
is true, greatly increasing their real knowledge of him, 
for he had always been and would always remain an 
unknown quantity; in one word, he had been typically 
the person from whom one expects something invari- 
ably surprising. But what aroused the unfeigned and 
spontaneous enthusiasm of the nation was the Em- 
peror's magnanimity, his extraordinary self-control, the 
delicacy which prompted this conciliatory invitation, 
and the greatness of a soul capable of putting aside all 
personal feeling and all personal resentment, in order 
to honor and recognize, in spite of all that had passed 
since, the great services that had been rendered by this 
harsh, veteran statesman. 

The ovations of which William, therefore, became the 
subject, during Bismarck's stay in Berlin, were some- 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

thing quite unheard of in the annals of a calm and pon- 
derous people, and surprised as well as touched their 
Sovereign profoundly. Never had such cheers met his 
ear, never had such glowing, loyal eyes gazed up at 
him, never had his good Berlinese shouted themselves 
so abominably hoarse! The following quatrain sung 
throughout the city then may give a feeble idea of 
what was singing in every heart: 

" Heil, Wilhelm, Dir und Segen! 
Das hast du gut gemacht: 
Auf alien deinen Wegen, 
Dir sei ein Hoch gebracht!" 



CHAPTER IX 

Emperor William's fondness for travelling is well 
known. Indeed, there is no doubt that if, instead of 
being Germany's Sovereign Lord, the life of a mere pri- 
vate gentleman of ample means had fallen to his share, he 
would have been an inveterate globe-trotter. As it is, 
since he has ascended the Throne he has covered more 
miles by land and water than any of his brother Sov- 
ereigns, even those old enough to be grandfathers to 
him. 

He had been on the Throne for less than four weeks 
when he started off from his capital to pay a state visit 
to Czar Alexander III.; thence he went to Denmark, 
Sweden and Norway, and a little later to Austria and 
Italy. 

This was all done in 1888. In 1889, the young Em- 
peror expressed a desire to see more of Norway, that 
land of long, silent twilights, bare crags, and mysterious 
fjords, where, comparatively speaking, so few journey. 
For the Emperor, as for that select number of people 
who admire nature even in her grimmest moods and 
under her gauntest aspect, Norway has an irresistible 
attraction. He had been enchanted by his first short 
sojourn there, and had by no means gazed his fill at the 
gray, hopeless cliffs, rising thousands of abrupt feet from 
the cold, transparent blue water, lapping their bases 
with scarcely a ripple of its chilling silkiness ; at the dis- 
tant snow-clad mountains glowing like pale phosphores- 
cent rubies in the vague light of the midnight sun ; or 

204 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

the deep, gloomy gorges enclosing narrow borders of 
sombre pine and silver-birch, that harmoniously min- 
gle their heterogeneous branches; or, in short, at all that 
goes so far to make up the peculiarly stern charm of 
this lonely corner of the world. 

Therefore, as soon as spring had given place to early 
summer, the Imperial yacht " Hohenzollcrn" left Kiel, 
to convey for the first time a German Emperor to the 
confines of Europe and the sad-hued shores of the Polar 
Sea. 

Few steamers ever churned the still, icy waters where 
the " Hohenzollern" ventured; certainly none of such 
exquisite neatness and elegance as that Imperial toy, 
had ever cast the white-and-gold reflections of immacu- 
late awnings and polished copper -fittings, across the 
mirroring shade thrown by the bleak and dismal preci- 
pices of that chaotic region. But William II. does noth- 
ing superficially ; he had determined to become intimate- 
ly acquainted with Norway, and intimately acquainted 
with it he became. 

I have alluded at the beginning of this volume to the 
Emperor's fondness for fishing. As soon as he reached 
the dreary magnificence of the fjords, he may be de- 
scribed as having lived in brogues, wet waders, soaking 
outer-socks, tweeds, and a gray cloth hat drawn sharp- 
ly down over the eyes. Every morning with untiring 
energy and unfailing delight, carrying his own creel and 
rod like the true sportsman he is, he sailed in a cockle- 
shell of a dinghy down the fjords to some distant trout- 
stream or boisterous river, bounding noisily towards 
the silent sea over cruel-toothed, jutting rocks, or tum- 
bling in a series of roaring waterfalls into great pools, 
which it roughened and clamorously broke into menac- 
ing little waves. 

No weather deterred him, and even when the sunshine, 

20S 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

which works so beautiful a transformation in Arctic land- 
scapes, hid its countenance behind gray palls of falling 
dampness that drew a gloomy twilight around the 
glaciers, he invariably went off in the highest spirits to 
pursue the treacherous trout in its wellnigh inaccessible 
haunts. On and on, regardless of peaty pool and swift- 
tearing brooklet, he followed the glistening, scarcely vis- 
ible track leading to the coveted spots where the fish 
lie head up-stream, with their ravenous, ferocious-look- 
ing mouths half -open to chance provender, as if await- 
ing the barbed fly attached to the taut Imperial line. 

The Emperor was enchanted. Never did he get tired 
of the quick, nervous burr-r-r-r of the reel, of the sudden 
bending of the rod with its promise of an extraordinary 
catch, of the delicious cosiness of the " Hohenzollenj's" 
saloon when, tired and wet through, after a long day's 
sport, he sat down to dinner at the luxuriously fitted 
table dazzlingly set with snowy napery, bright silver, 
fragrant flowers, and sparkling crystal, and which form- 
ed so pleasing a contrast to the fine, cold rain falling 
overhead on the yacht's white decks, or the freezing 
wind of the polar night blowing across the fjords. 

Yet pleasure was, after all, with himhut a" Nebcnsache," 
a rare oasis within a desert of duty, to be indulged in 
but seldom, and his travels have always had a more im- 
portant aim than either pleasure or political interests. 
Indeed, as he himself wrote: 

"In my travels, which have, perchance, been misin- 
terpreted, I have not only sought to visit foreign lands 
and study foreign statesmanship, or to cultivate friendly 
relations with neighboring realms, but having recognized 
the immense value of the perspective which distance 
lends to one's view of party feuds and party prejudices, 
I have looked upon these travels as necessary periods of 
rest, during which I am enabled to put many things to 

206 




STEERIN'G HIS BOAT IN THE FIORDS 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

the proof. Whoever has communed with himself when 
alone on the high seas, with naught but God's star- 
broidered heavens above, cannot be blind to the infinite 
worth of such moments. That is why I desired to live 
through these hours, during which the heart can seek 
its own counsel and the mind call itself to account for 
what it has striven to accomplish, and the way in which 
it has striven, since they are the best of cures for over 
self-confidence, and, as such, a benefit to any human 
being." 

Norway must in that respect have been absolutely 
perfect, for its very atmosphere seems so impregnated 
with a sort of solemn isolation, that nothing can ever 
tarnish its unworldliness. In the extreme purity of its 
air anxious doubts, treacherous feelings of one's own 
worthlessness, are soon laid to rest. The unreal, strain- 
ed ways of civilization are left far behind, and when a 
new day dawns upon the land that has known no night, 
when the great snow -fields peeping above the rocky 
crags which border the shores, begin to glow with the 
pearly light of morning, the heart and soul feel astonish- 
ingly refreshed by the crystalline silence of the hours 
of sweet repose and meditation, which have just closed. 

There, far away from railways and the noise of haste 
and traffic, one does not seem to long for the busy life 
of great cities, and quietude soon follows on excite- 
ment or weariness without any great mental effort be- 
ing necessary. 

It is well to bear in mind that Emperor William II. 
was already, in 1889, unusually heavily burdened. In- 
deed, one is tempted to say that his position was unique 
in this respect for a man of his age. His grasp of most 
subjects was extraordinarily minute and profound. In 
military and naval matters his faculties, for instance, 
were remarkable. From the lock of a rifle to the con- 

207 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

struction of a trench, from the strap of a campaigning 
saddle and the details of a treaty, to the loading and 
sponging of a field-artillery piece, the furling of a sail, 
or the management of a torpedo-boat, the extent of his 
knowledge was practically unrivalled. In diplomacy 
and statecraft he had already made his mark, and his 
slightest word and action had been dictated by motives 
that had their birth in a punctilious sense of honor and 
a deep and scrupulous uprightness. 

Truly he was no trifier, but went right to the very 
heart of everything he undertook, with a completeness 
which took one's breath away. Nor had the sorrows 
and trials of the past two years as yet faded away from 
his remembrance. He was outwardly little changed, 
but the wounds inflicted then were by no means healed. 
No doubt the great healer. Time, would yet do for him 
what it does more or less for all of us — but it was still 
too soon for that, and in his courage he seemed to take 
pride and pleasure in facing untoward difficulties, in- 
deed, he ordinarily sought them — but during this first 
long sojourn in Norway he gave himself leisure at last 
to see the brighter objects of his life stand out more 
firmly and brilliantly against the sombre veils of the 
past, and gazed at them with eyes that clearly saw and 
understood. 

Almost every year since then, the slim, graceful hull 
of the " Hohcnzollcrn" has swung into view of the silent, 
solitary fjords, whither its Imperial owner comes in 
search of those quiet hours which are a medicine to his 
energetic, busy, tireless spirit. Then old questions are 
brought to life again, unfinished plans are reassumed, 
careful " examens de conscience" are gone throtigh in a 
practical, far-sighted way, and the kindly heart and ac- 
tive spirit commune with each other alone, with remark- 
ably good results for the welfare of William's subjects, 

208 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

as is exemplified by the many things that are accom- 
plished when he returns, buoyant and strengthened in 
body and mind, and with an ever wider and braver 
conception of life. 

In ordinary times William II. has a strange trick of 
lapsing into sudden stony silences, invariably followed 
by the raising of some deep, abstract question, or the 
solution of some difficulty of more than usual magni- 
tude. There is a strange mixture of strength and gentle- 
ness, courage and resignation, indefatigable energy and 
brooding philosophy at play during those silent mo- 
ments, which is utterly incomprehensible to most, but 
well known to a very few. 

Of course, the Emperor's rapid journeys from one 
end of Europe to the other caused much comment of 
an ill-natured character. Other Monarchs stayed at 
home, why did not he ? What need was there of his 
flying about like a Cabinets-Courier or a commercial 
traveller, desecrating his lofty functions by actually 
signing State papers and Imperial documents in a rail- 
way - carriage swallowing up seventy miles an hour ? 
Such restlessness was surely on a par with his usual ec- 
centricities! Was he in a fair way to become irretriev- 
ably "770W compos mentis'''} Such a love of excitement 
was decidedly a very grave sign of mental perturbation, 
and should be checked if possible. This was the clear 
and decisive view taken by the public of these Imperial 
journeys, and was expressed with a half-pitying, half- 
contemptuous, and wholly alarmed jerk of the head or 
the pen. 

The trouble was that His Majesty William II. cer- 
tainly left a great deal unsaid about his travels, which 
this babbling world of ours expected him to confide to 
it. And being disappointed, it naturally revenged itself! 

One self-deception leads to another, and when it be- 

209 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

came known, some years later, that Germany's Emperor 
was about to undertake a trip to Palestine, the world 
found itself enriched by the full and perfect conviction 
that a spectacular pageant of a religious and devotional 
character was the Sovereign's chief object. Indeed, a 
great many very remarkable articles appeared in the 
foreign press dealing with the "Protestant Pope William " 
and his ambitions, with a free-and-easy display of igno- 
rance which was intensely refreshing. It is a well-known 
fact that for the press it is always clear light, whatever 
the time of day or night, winter or summer, peace or 
war, thanks to an unsparing use of imagination. There 
is no fear of its readers being left behind the times. On 
the contrary, they — for the trifling expenditure of a 
small coin or two — are always carried far ahead even of 
probabilities. 

Emperor William was going to Jerusalem via Constan- 
tinople — this was strictly true — but he was supposed to 
conceal under this after all perfectly harmless and 
natural desire of visiting the Holy Sepulchre, a more 
than insatiable ambition. This was not true at all, and 
in this instance the "revelations" of the press were not 
markedly convincing. They cannot always be that! 
At any rate, the public was justified in believing that 
the "pretext" of the voyage — the consecration of the 
"Heiland's Kirche" at Jerusalem — was correctly stated, 
for the Emperor was really going to be present at that 
ceremony. 

Jerusalem! A magical word, which conjures up vi- 
sions of a glorious past, unchanging for centuries, a word 
which appeals to one's imagination, makes one dream 
of the dim, mysterious light of great silent temples, and 
fills one's soul with an overwhelming feeling of awe and 
of wonder — Jerusalem! which "civilization," with its 
dreary procession of empty-headed, chattering tourists, 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

its levelling theories, its noise and its ghastly search after 
improvement, has, of late years, touched with sacri- 
legious fingers. 

Judge what Emperor William's feelings must have been 
when he stood before this grand old city, this splendid 
relic of the immemorial past, and realized that, as far 
as was feasible, all the remaining "cotdeur locale" had 
been rubbed off to do him honor ! 

Grand and terrible was the old Jerusalem, impressive 
and mystical the untouched portions of it are yet to 
those who wander there alone and stumble by chance, 
as it were, upon what is left intact. But it must have 
been a bitter disappointment to travel all the way from 
Germany in order to inhale the spirit of long ago, and to 
find that the great gateways, the tortuous, dark lanes, 
the gaunt, crumbling thoroughfares, and narrow "che- 
mins-de-ronde" draped in golden lichens, had alike been 
emptied of their customary denizens, that the pictu- 
resque forms of Arab, Jew, negro, and Levantine, clad in 
the artistic tangle of multicolored rags or the magnifi- 
cence of Oriental costumes, had been swept from the 
paths where they wend all day and all night their shroud- 
ed way, and the grim old city purged of all its character 
in order to make room for the Imperial cortege. 

Europe seemed to the Emperor very far distant, as 
together with the Empress he landed at Haifa ; the echo 
of its shrill clamor had died away upon the oily blue 
waves he was leaving behind, the hurry of its conflicts, 
the fuss of its restless inhabitants could be forgotten for 
a time, and now he, the great Sovereign who had trav- 
elled so many miles to worship at the Saviour's tomb, 
would be able to plunge himself heart and soul into an 
epoch which is of so vital an interest for the Christian 
world. 

He was now in a country where the very moss upon 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

the house-tops is of secular antiquity, where the ways 
of the people who live beneath them are scarcely less 
so, and, as he took possession of his camp beneath the 
crumbling walls of the great Christian Mecca, and gazed 
at it in the glory of a violet and gold sunset, he was 
evidently deeply impressed and moved. But when he 
turned his horse's head towards the city so often drench- 
ed with the blood of Christian and infidel alike, what a 
shock his sensibilities must have endured — although 
he very carefully and considerately concealed the fact. 
Many great and successful careers have been based upon 
this simple practice of self-control. 

The extravagant preparations made for the entrance 
of the German Sovereigns into Jerusalem were undoubt- 
edly the outcome of excellent intentions, but when it 
comes to the mathematical grading and levelling of 
eminently picturesque roads, the partial pulling down 
of a venerable and twenty -times historical wall, and the 
scouring and whitewashing of the Jaffa - gate and of 
David's Tower, it takes considerable self-control for a 
man possessed, like Emperor William, of a reverential 
and artistic mind to compel himself to smile gratefully. 

M. de Mirbach, one of the chroniclers of the Imperial 
pilgrimage, remarks that Jerusalem was on that day as 
neat and dainty as a bonbon box ! Ye Gods ! A bonbon 
box ! Could anything be more atrociously ' ' fi-n de siecle ' ' ? 

Indeed, the whole pilgrimage was the most extraor- 
dinary thing of the kind ever witnessed, thanks to the 
meddlesome interference of people who, fearing lest the 
Imperial couple should lack creature comforts and mod- 
ern luxuries, succeeded in replacing by a glaring and 
vulgar up-to-dateness beggaring all description, all the 
romance and antique glamour they — the Emperor and 
Empress — thirsted for. 

Had the Emperor's plans for this "Imperial Crusade" 



I 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

been followed scrupulously, its success would have been 
a foregone conclusion, for he is "artiste jusqu'au bout 
des angles,'' and, moreover, sincerely and profoundly 
reverential — an excellent combination under such cir- 
cumstances — but, alas! in these democratic days the 
first and foremost thought is to get one's money's worth 
out of any enterprise, and the organizers of this journey 
to Palestine were so eager to procure for their Imperial 
patron his full money's worth that they lamentably 
overdid things. 

Moreover, the modern human being never quite purges 
his mind of the instinct commercial, and it therefore 
goes without saying that the costliness of the occasion 
was strained to its uttermost capacities. There are a 
very few people in this world who can read a person's 
mind by the mere flicker of an eyelid, a glance, a silence 
of a few seconds, or any other such trivial sign, in pref- 
erence to judging by the spoken word; but as there 
happened to be one or two such keen observers in the 
Emperor's train, even the unalterable good-humor and 
smiling resignation to the " jait accompli'' displayed by 
that august personage did not quite succeed in entirely 
concealing his very natural disappointment. 

His entrance into Jerusalem was impressive, in spite 
of these meddlesome organizers, for mounted on a su- 
perb white palfrey and wearing a snowy mantle, the 
long folds of which fell in simple, noble lines about him, 
he looked every inch of him a Crusader King. But the 
"Wacht am Rhein," shrilly rendered by the brass bands 
of the Turkish escort, seemed curiously out of place in 
those quaint old thoroughfares, where the "Allah Akbar" 
of the true believers resounds like a great, plaintive moan 
of prayer, rising and falling solemnly, to be re-echoed 
from the very house-tops and to die away with infinite 
melancholy at the very threshold of the Catholic fanes. 

213 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

whence low, Latin chants, impressive and nerve-shaking, 
filter into the dry, resonant air. 

These are the melodies echoing down the centuries, 
which make all Jerusalem murmurous with one orison 
arising at one and the same time from the two antago- 
nistic camps. Christian and Moslem, with equal fervor, 
but the martial strains of brass instruments played by 
the neat, trim, and thoroughly modernized soldiers of 
the Sultan, who contemptuously designate the Holy 
Sepulchre as "el Komamah" (that filth) certainly cre- 
ated a lamentable dissonance. 

Nor after sundown, when William sank humbly upon 
his knees to pray fervently in the dusky gardens of 
Gethsemane, did the vague outline of the great city, 
with its palaces of dead Kings rising up one behind the 
other, their crowding roofs, grim and gray with the 
wash of rains and the storms of ages, stretching away 
into the dim distance, the creviced towers over-topping 
other towers, and the silent, oppressive crenellations of 
the grand sweep of wall, suggest the magnificent ban- 
quet cooked by French chefs " di-primo-cartello" and 
drenched with champagne of the very costliest mark, 
waiting there for this Imperial pilgrim. 

Black and menacing in the sinister light of a redly 
rising moon, the ancient city towered, and, wrapped in 
his cloak, careless now of jarring contrasts, impene- 
trable, and with thoughts and heart concentrated, the 
Emperor knelt on the bare ground, the old Jerusalem 
alone looming large before his vision, drawing nearer, 
moving towards him, first slowly, then quickly, then 
in a rush of overpowering feeling, the centuries slip- 
ping from him like a mantle, and leaving him but an 
awed and humble worshipper. 

This same spirit of revocation permeated him when 
he walked on the Mount of Olives, received the Holy 

214 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Communion in the " Coenaculum," attended the conse- 
cration of the Church of the Holy Saviour, and travelled 
by road from Jerusalem to Damascus. The incongrui- 
ties of the "personally conducted tourisfs trip" no 
longer grated upon him, for his ardent faith blotted out 
all the exasperating false notes which marred this grand, 
religious symphony. 

Slowly he rode between endless fields of velvety bar- 
ley, such as those in which the Founder of Christianity 
had passed with his disciples; walked his horse across 
wide strips of Palestine irises and asphodels, gazing ab- 
stractedly at the plumes of distant palms or the groups 
of dark olives showing against the faint dead turquoise 
blue of the horizon line. 

From the gray walls of the antique buildings, from 
the flower-filled plain, nay, even from the brilliant dust 
dancing beneath his charger's feet, the all-pervading 
chant of the Past rose and declined continuously in an 
arc of sound and of blinding magnificence, which nothing 
could dim and which made his whole being throb exult- 
antly. All the intuitions of his at times singularly mys- 
tical mind came to his aid and brought him imperish- 
able solace. His eyes roamed upon the great plain, level 
as a sea, that stretched away to right and to left until 
the distinct, somewhat harsh color of its flower and bar- 
ley patches merged into one soft, shimmering, amethys- 
tine hue. 

Why had this "restless" Emperor gone to Palestine? 
The question had been launched by sharp, challenging 
voices, and scratched sourly by many acerated pens 
throughout Europe. 

Why ? For this ! Just for this, ye vindictive and 
jealous apostles of curiosity! And his aim was now ac- 
complished. 

Such a statement ma}'' seem strange to a crowd which, 

215 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

hankering after music of the dancing-hall type, sudden- 
ly hears a melodious symphony played by a master-hand 
— yes, strange and unpleasant, like any other truth. 

Usually, when either at home or abroad, the amount 
of labor Emperor William accomplishes in a day is 
without parallel. During his sojourn in Constantinople 
he had fairly bewildered the languid Orientals by his 
unconquerable energy and his indefatigable vitality, 
but this journey to Palestine was a time apart, during 
which the dreamer within him had full play, instead of 
being, as usual, repressed and denied; and really, what- 
ever gibes and stings the world might afterwards dis- 
pense about the histrionic proclivities and melodramatic 
"penchants" of this particular Crusader, they would be 
trifling and unimportant compared with the treasure of 
freshly gathered delight thus acquired. 

Similar sneers have been levelled at his self-assumed 
role of " Summus Episcoptts" of the Lutheran Church 
throughout his Empire, although, strictly speaking, his 
supremacy in the State Church of his Realm is just as 
logical as that of the Muscovite and British Sovereigns. 

Is he not by right of inheritance a titular Bishop and 
Archbishop, some twenty times over, since his ancestors 
when annexing small States and Sovereignties invari- 
ably obtained the Mitre with the Crown and the Crozier 
with the Sceptre ? For it will be remembered that many 
petty German States in the Middle-Ages were ruled by 
Bishops and Archbishops possessing Sovereign rank, 
their ecclesiastical dignity being inherent to their es- 
tates as Rulers. 

Moreover, the objections presented to William's recog- 
nition as Supreme Head of the Lutheran Church, on the 
plea that that branch of Christianity is not confined to 

216 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

his dominions, are absurd, for Greek Catholicism is by 
no means hmited by the boundaries of the Czar's do- 
minions, and there is a large Anglican body in the United 
States, which patent facts do not prevent the Emperor 
of All The Russias and the English King from being 
hereditary '' Swnmi Episcopi" within their respective 
countries. So there, also, the public is inclined to des- 
perately exaggerate a perfectly legitimate idea into yet 
another proof of inordinate and unbearable ambition. 

Another most amusing error is that engendered by 
the conspicuous position on the wall of William's study 
at Potsdam of the copy of a genealogical tree presented 
by Queen Victoria, and the original of which is at Wind- 
sor Castle. Since in this document a descent is traced 
by way of the English Royal line to Heremon, an ancient 
King of Ulster, and thence back to King David through 
Heremon's wife — a mythical Princess of Israel — it has 
been currently stated that the Emperor prides himself 
greatly on belonging to the same family as Christ. 

It is really incredible that it should be necessary to 
explain that this pedigree — at least the Hebrew part 
of it — is nothing more than an interesting relic of the 
feudal ages, when coats of arms were devised for such 
doubtful cavaliers as Achilles and Hector, and when 
the title of Abraham, Moses, and Aaron to be considered 
"gentlemen" was gravely afhrmed by such enthusiasts 
as that veracious lady, Juliana Berners, who, moreover, 
speaks of the " gcntilman Jesus. . . very God and man; 
after his nianhodc King of the londe of Jude and of Jewes, 
gentilman by his inoder Mary, prynce of cote armure." 

There is, however, a descent of which Emperor Will- 
iam is very proud — and with justice — that from those 
heroic men, Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of France, 
who was slain in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, and 
William the Silent, Prince of Orange-Nassau, the Lib- 

217 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

erator of the Netherlands. This descent, by reason of 
which the Prussian Crown possesses the title of "Prince 
of Orange" — an extinct principality in the heart of 
France — and a right to the Throne of Holland, accord- 
ing to the legitimistic point of view, greater than that 
of Queen Wilhelmina, may be traced by no less than 
three lines, one being the direct line of the Prussian 
Kings, and the other two those of the parents of the 
late Empress-Dowager Augusta of Saxe-Weimar. 

Gaspard, Due de Coligny, was born February i6, 1517, 
at the ancestral seat of his family, the Chateau de Cha- 
tillon-sur-Loing, in what is now the Department of 
Loiret, son of Gaspard, Due de Coligny, Marshal and Peer 
of France, and Louise de Montmorency. He married 
Charlotte de Laval, and their daughter, Louise de 
Coligny, born in 1555, married first Charles de Teligny, 
who perished with his father-in-law in the St. Bar- 
tholomew, and afterwards, at Antwerp, in 1583, William 
the Silent. Their granddaughter, Louise Henriette of 
Orange-Nassau, aunt of William IIL of England and 
Holland, married, in 1646, Frederick William the Great, 
Elector of Brandenburg, the eleventh Prince of his line 
since the year 141 5, when the Emperor Sigismund, in 
return for aid that raised him to the Imperial Throne, 
conferred the electoral dignity upon the powerful Burg- 
graves of Nuremberg, who prior to 1191 had been the 
hard-fighting Swabian Counts of Hohenzollern. Their 
son, Frederick, was the first King of Prussia. 

Or perhaps a chart states the matter more plainly : 



IMPERATOR ET REX 



Gaspard de Coligny=Louise de Montmorency 



Gaspard de Coligny^Charlotte de Laval 
B. i.srg; D. 1572. 
(The St. Bartholo- 
mew) 



B. 1533; William the Silent— Louise de Coligny B. iSSS. 

D. 1584. Prince of Orange-Nassau, D- 1620. 

Stadtholder of Holland 



Henry Frederick of Orange-Nassau 
Stadtholder of "Holland b. 1584. o. 1647. 



Frederick William = Louise Henriette of Orange-Nassau 



Elector of Bran- 
denburg 
B. 1620; D. 1688. 



B. 1627; D. 1667. 
(Aunt of WilUam IIL of England) 



Frederick I. KingASophie Charlotte of Hanover D. 1705 
of Prussia Great-Granddaughter of James L of 

B. 1657, D. 1713. England, and sister of George I. of 
England 



Frederick William /.^Sophie Dorothea of Hanover 
B. i688; D. 1740. I D. I7S7- 



Frederick II. The Great 
B. 1712; D. 1786. 



Augustus William, Prince of Prussia 
B. 1722; D. 1758. Married Louisa 
Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbiittel 



Fredcriik William //. = Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt 
B. 1744; D. i7(j7. D. 1805. 



Frederick William ///.—Louisa of Mecklenburg-Strelitz 
B. 1770; D. 1840. B. 1776; D. 1810. 

"The Beautiful Queen Louise" 



Frederick William IV. 
B. 1795; D. 18O1. 



William I. b. 1797; D. i88S. 
Married Augusta of 
Saxe- Weimar 

B. 181 1 ; D. 1890. 



Frederick ///.=Victoria of England 



u. 1831; 

D. Jj 



B. 1840; D. J901 



William II. 

B. 1859. 



219 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

And as regards the two lines of descent through 
Augusta of Saxe-Wemiar, 



Gaspard de Coligny=Charlotte de Laval 
B. 1510; D. 1572- I 
(The St, Bartholomew) | 

William the Silent=Louise de Coligny 
Prince of Orange-Nassau b. 1535; t)- 1620. 

Stadtholder of Holland 
B. 1533, D. 1584 

Henry Frederick of Grange-Nassau, Stadtholder of Holland 

B. 1584. I D. 1647. 



Frederick 


Louise 


Henriette 


John 


Frederick 


Dorothea of 


William the 


Henriette 


Catherine 


Georgell 


William 


Holstein- 


Great Elector 


of Orange- 


of Orange- 


Prince of 


the Great 


Glucksberg 


B. 1620 


Nassau 


Nassau 


Anhalt- 


Elector 


B. 1636; 


D. 1688. 


B. 1627; 


B. 1637; 


Dessau 


B. 1620; 


D. 1689. 


(ist marriage) 


D. 1667. 


D. 1708. 


B. 1627; 
D. 1693. 


D. 1688. 


(2d marriage) 














Frederick I. 


Johanna Charlotte of 


Philip William, Mar- 


King of Pr 


ussia 


Anhalt-Dessau 


grave of Brandenburg- 


B. 1657; D. 


1713- 


B. 1682; D. 


1750. 


Schwedt B 


ih'jg, D. 1711. 



Frederick William I. 
King of Prussia 
B. 1688; D. 1740. 



Philippine Sophie of 

Charlotte of Prussia Prussia, 
B. 1716; D. i8oi. 8.1719:0.176'; 

Married Charles I. '^ ■ 

Duke of Brunswick- 
Wolf enbiittel 
B. 1713; D. 1780. 

Anna Amalia of 
Brunswick- Wolf en- 
biittel B. 1730; 
D. 1807. Married 
Ernest Augustus H. 
Duke of Saxe-Wei- 
mar B. 1737; 
D. 175S. 



Frederick William 
Margrave of Brandcnburg-Schwedt 
B, 1700; D. 1772. 



Frederica Sophia Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwcdt 
B. 1736- D. 1798. Married Frederick H., Duke of 
Wiirtcmberg b. 1732; d. 1797 



Charles Augustus 
Grand-Duke of Saxe- 
Weimar b. 1757; 
D. 1828. 

Charles Frederick 

Grand-Duke of Saxe- 

Weiniar. 

b. 1783; D. 1853. 



Sophia (Maria Feodorowna) of Wiirteniberg 
b. 1759; D. 1828. Married Paul I. Emperor of 
Russia b. 1754; D. 1801. 



Maria Paulowna of Russia 
B. 17SO; D. 1859. 



"T 



William I., King of Prussia= Augusta of Saxe- Weimar 
b. 1707; D. 1888. B. 1811; D. 1890. 

I 
Frederick III., King of Prussia=Victona of England, 
B. 1S3T ; D. 1888. I B. 1840; D. 1901. 

Willidiu 11 of Prussia and Germany b. 1859. 



IMPERATOR ET REXy 

Slow of movement, slow of speech, the Teutons are re- 
puted to be; but although most excessively Teuton in 
heart and soul, as well as in most other respects. Em- 
peror William is not slow by any means, neither is he 
taciturn. On the contrary, although he is the busiest 
man in his Empire, he yet finds time for everything, 
even for occasional amusement, and amusement with 
him is synonymous with all things pertaining to 
sport. 

Fishing-rods, spiteful - looking hooks, and all other 
paraphernalia belonging to the perfect angler's outfit, 
are far from being His Majestj^'s chief toys, for shooting, 
hunting, riding, canoeing, swimming — nay, polo, tennis, 
and dancing, besides many other lighter branches of 
sport — if one may give that name to a somewhat hetero- 
geneous list — claim their fair share of his wide-awake and 
remarkably intelligent interest. 

There are among these manifold above-mentioned 
branches some wherein a certain mechanical portion of 
the brain is sufficient to guide and inspire the hand, 
leaving the remainder free for other work — the steer- 
ing of a ship, for instance, and even the handling of a 
whistling trout-line — although ardent fishermen will 
probably anathematize me for pronouncing such a 
heresy. But big-game shooting emphatically does not 
belong to that order of things; its extermination must 
needs be transacted by the help of the whole amount 
of mother -wit one is blessed with, I do assure you, 
and big-game shooting is one of William's favorite pas- 
times. 

A great Northern forest in winter is one of nature's 
most magnificent efforts towards perfection — indeed, the 
beauty of such a scene grips one positively by the throat. 
Trackless, motionless, virginal, the huge expanse of up- 
right pine-trunks and immaculate snow stretch before 




IMPERATOR ET REX 

the wandering eyes of the hunters, and a sort of infec- 
tious silence — 

"So white and still, fur 's you can look or listen," 

broken only by the miniature avalanches caused by the 
dip of a heavily laden branch beneath the light touch 
of a white willow-grouse, or a whirling snipe in the sum- 
mits of the trees emitting its warning note, gives one 
almost the impression of standing in a sacred place. 

This feeling, of course, departs when one remembers 
that the chief reason of one's presence is the quest of 
bears, wolves, black -game, capercailzie or ptarmigan, 
and is replaced — especially when the weird, hopeless 
howl of the wolves strikes one's ears — by a sensation 
distinctly the reverse of solemn! 

Wilham II. is passionately fond of hunting in winter, 
when the icy wind whispers and gurgles in the pines, 
when the air is thin like spun -crystal, exhilarating 
like a draught of champagne, and sends the blood 
coursing through one's veins with a surprising " joie de 
vivre." 

A strange, popular delusion is that he likes the gro- 
tesque and "bourgeois" mode of shooting young boars 
bereft of their tusks at a pitifully tender age and driven 
like sheep towards him from their pens in the " Saugar- 
ten." That, like all other popular delusions of which 
he is the subject, is quite untrue. Germany's Emperor 
is far too much of a man to enjoy so tame a sport. Al- 
though when timid guests flock around him he grudg- 
ingly consents to take part in such butchery — a tra- 
ditional form of entertainment — yet, for himself, he 
prefers more difficult forms of woodland hunting, es- 
pecially since being an extraordinarily good shot, and 
versed in all forest-craft, the ruses of the furred and 




RETURNING FROM A CHAMOIS HUNT 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

feathered denizens of his boundless pine-woods are but 
an additional attraction. 

He is remarkably learned in the ways and customs of 
big game, and to him there is nothing comparable to the 
joy of outwitting those ponderous brutes which tread 
so silently and stealthily through the snow-white clear- 
ings, to gain, unperceived if possible, the bluish depths 
of the surrounding thickets. The distant cries of small 
birds, the far-off warning of a wolf, are quickly and 
easily interpreted by his practised ear, and, clad in fur- 
lined clothes, he loves to stand alone in a woodman's 
refuge, one rifle across his arm, another near to hand, 
watching through the interlaced branches the approach 
of a gaunt "Gray Brother" lurching from cover with an 
evil grin on his snarling lips, the silent skimming of a 
grouse over the open space, or the shambling of a grum- 
bling, growling bear, furious at having been disturbed 
and hunted from his lair by the beaters. 

When not awakened from their long winter's sleep, 
these bears are not particularly ferocious, but when 
they have been forced to relinquish the warm cosiness 
of their comfortable quarters, that is quite another af- 
fair, for they suddenly become adversaries worthy of 
the best steel. 

At those moments there is a singular gleam in Will- 
iam's eyes which is not due to the mere excitement of 
a sportsman, and which one may notice there every 
time he is confronted by some difficulty which he is 
eager to conquer. His whole attitude and manner in- 
dicate a complete mastery of the situation; there is a 
strong, calm, and essentially manly air about him, 
through which the unlimited power of an unconquer- 
able will is apparent; physically also he has the lithe- 
ness which one finds in many Germans who have taken 
their degree at one of their great Universities, for the 

283 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

German students are the finest gymnasts in the world, 
and muscle once made is there to stay. 

His exquisite little Castle of Letzlingen is, in my 
humble opinion, the gem of the collection of similar 
Imperial and Royal hunting-boxes throughout Europe. 
After the great autumnal military manoeuvres have 
come to an end, Emperor William usually begins the 
sporting season by going to Rominten, his shooting-box 
on the Romintener-Heide, which is situated in the dis- 
trict of Gumbinnen, in East Prussia, and surrounded by 
some seventy or eighty square miles of forest-land. The 
heath itself is not like the barren, unprofitable Scottish 
moors, dreary and monotonous beyond compare, nor 
the wind-blown, rock-strewn " Landcs" of Brittany, ren- 
dered so infinitely gorgeous by the dazzling gold of fierce- 
ly armored whin -bushes, the delicate pink and white 
and deep purple of the heather, and the rich yellow 
of innumerable genestas, but is a very different sort of 
country, covered with dense pine-woods of quite savage 
grandeur, carpeted with thick mosses and intersected 
by fern - bordered rivulets. There the Emperor often 
rides far and fast among the splendid trees and out on 
the broad turf roads, closed in with a dewy veil of 
greenery, which the approaching autumn begins to tint 
lightly with flecks of ruby and topaz. 

The house itself is an ideahzed double chalet, very 
roomy and comfortable, planted on a green lawn belted 
by larches, beeches, and walnut-trees, which cluster 
gracefully around some tall, dark -needled Siberian pines. 
Close to it rises the slender spire of the quaint little 
chapel of St. Hubert, patron of the chase, where the 
religious services are conducted by a Court Chaplain 
during the Emperor's sojourns. The Kaiser is certainly 
one of St. Hubert's most fervent devotees, and invari- 
ably wears around his neck, when in hunting-dress, the 

224 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

broad green ribbon of the St. Hubert's Order, inscribed 
with the words " Vivent Ic Roy et ses chasseurs," from 
which depends a swiftly racing stag exquisitely wrought 
in silver and surmounted by a Royal Crown and a 
cluster of acorns. 

From Rominten the Emperor goes on to Hubertus- 
tock, another of the Imperial "Jagdreviers," which is 
celebrated for the plentifulness of its red deer. 

On November 3d, the " Hilbertusjagd" (St. Hubert's 
Hunt) takes place in the "Grilnewald" near Berlin, an 
occasion of much display, to witness which from one 
hundred and fifty to two hundred invitations are yearly 
issued; and, finally, towards the end of November, the 
indefatigable Imperial Nimrod arrives at Schloss Letz- 
lingen, which in former days used to be known by the 
name of " Hirschbnrg" (the Castle of Stags). 

It was built in 1560 by Kurprinz Johann George von 
Brandenburg, who was also a passionate disciple of the 
great St. Hubert, and is a delicious bit of Gothic archi- 
tecture, embowered by century - old oaks. There is a 
tower - flanked and crenellated wall surrounding the 
Castle, at the foot of which a broad moat does duty as 
a mirror to reflect the tiny turrets and machicolations 
crowning the massive barbican. 

The Emperor's room is the most picturesque and 
covetable one can imagine. A dark tapestry covers the 
walls, and the ceiling is formed by aged and mellowed 
oak -beams. It is lighted at night by sconces and a 
magnificent hanging "Lustre" made from the antlers 
of stags killed on the estate, and before the carved writ- 
ing-desk is a gigantic arm-chair, the legs, arms, and head- 
rest of which are formed of the great curved horns of 
the long-vanished and extinct red cattle. 

Every self-respecting writer must prate of the interior 
of houses or palaces — as the case may be — interiors 

225 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

which are more or less aHke all the world over, for 
costly draperies, beautiful pictures, inlaid furniture, and 
magnificent carpets are the same between any four 
walls; but still, after all, the foot that treads the carpets, 
the hand looping up the draperies, and the brain plan- 
ning the ''tout ensemble'' make them differ in some es- 
sential points, for whether the description above decried 
be that of a castle or a hovel, it still must be the human 
being that lends the interest to the cocoon he inhabits. 

William II. was born with a talent to produce the 
best effects in any of the places he lives in, the best that 
are to be obtained from the materials at hand, and 
when those do not suffice, his purse is sufficiently long 
and his taste sufficiently great to remedy, promptly, 
whatever is lacking. Indeed, the room I am attempt- 
ing to describe is, from the square polychrome stove in 
the corner to the trifles littering the writing-table, per- 
fect. Through the tapestry one divines the outline of 
the square-hewn blocks of granite of which the Schloss 
is built ; there are wild-flowers in shallow bowls on low, 
heavy tables, deep-curtained windows, massive chairs, 
a wonderful rug or two, and on the walls some remark- 
able water -colors and a quantity of trophies of the 
chase, including admirably mounted antlered heads of 
''Royals," queer lynx faces grinning evilly, wild boars 
with protruding tusks, and bears and wolves with spar- 
kling crystal eyes as bright as if still full of life. 

Among the many curios to be seen at Letzlingen is 
an old goblet cunningly fastened between the points of 
a pair of giant antlers. It is only possible to drink 
therefrom by squeezing one's face between these points, 
which for rotund people is a difficult achievement. It 
is a custom for every one of the Emperor's guests to be 
put through this odd performance, in order to thus ab- 
sorb a pint bottle of champagne at one draught, to the 

226 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

health of the Imperial host, and loud and merry is the 
laughter when some clumsy or embarrassed person 
comes to grief and spills the contents upon himself. 

The Emperor is a dead shot, his aim being almost ab- 
solutely unerring. Elks have fallen victims to his gun 
in Sweden, bears in Russia and in Hungary — besides 
those killed on his own lands — reindeer in Norway, 
chamois in the Tyrol, and several "Aurochsen" — those 
fierce wild cattle now almost extinct — in the private do- 
mains of the Czar, not to mention boars, wolves, stags, 
deer, and innumerable birds of all sizes, species, and de- 
grees of rarity, in every corner of Europe. To termi- 
nate this list worthily, it is only necessary to mention 
the two or three whales which he shot with a harpoon- 
gun during his Far-Northern trips. 

It is, perchance, at Rominten, however, that William 
enjoys the shooting he likes best, since, as it is situated 
in close proximity to the Russian frontier, there is an 
abundance of wolves and of big game in the surround- 
ing forests. 

When the snow falls softly and steadily, as it falls in 
those regions, filling the whole atmosphere with a fine, 
brilliant, icy powder, which drifts constantly, restlessly, 
in soft, broad waves like those of an ocean, the Emperor 
drives his sleigh to the great, silent woods, as fast as 
horses can lay hoof to the frozen surface of the interven- 
ing roads. He takes the numbing wind which tears and 
howls down straight from the North as a matter of 
course, and with the composure that comes of long ex- 
perience, holds the reins and handles them after the 
fashion of Russian Yemschiks, for he has a singular knack 
of adapting himself almost unconsciously to his surround- 
ings. The certain knowledge that at any moment tlie 
horses may plunge into a drift and that such an accident 
is sometimes fraught with considerable danger, when the 

227 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

thermometer merrily hovers between twenty and thirty, 
or even forty degrees below freezing-point, leaves him 
quite undisturbed, for a Sovereign who constantly and 
cheerfully runs the danger of assassination does not 
rate the value of his life very high. Moreover, he has 
that delight in battling with the elements which is a 
peculiarity of all strong men and a few — a very few — 
small women, who in their inferior way are strong too! 

As a rider Emperor William is equally skilled: he rides 
like an Austrian — encomium can go no further. His 
horses are the best that money can purchase, and a 
finer judge of equine qualities never stood in a pair of 
perfectly fitting riding-boots. Passionately devoted to 
"terram" riding, it is a pleasure to see him negotiate 
tall fences and broad water-jumps with the rapidity, 
security, and neatness of a professional, and without 
even putting an iron astray. 

Generally speaking, he and his hunters are equally 
keen on going, and the pair of them move at a head- 
long gallop, which does a connoisseur's heart good to 
witness. 

In the hunting-field he is often in absolutely boyish 
spirits, sitting squarely in his saddle, hands well down, 
and blue eyes dancing with excitement, while he faces 
every obstacle indiscriminately, and goes over all, 
whether they be high or wide, as if leaping mere potato- 
furrows. 

All sorts of marvellous escapes from harm are in the 
day's-work with him, cross-country or otherwise. In 
his pink coat he is the picture of a horseman, his horses 
are always pictures, too, and horse and rider sail away 
at the tail of the pack without thrust or flurry, but 
with unimpeachable judgment and determination on 
the part of the latter, and extraordinary speed and en- 
durance on that of the former, a combination of felici- 

228 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

tious circumstances which fills the expert on -lookers 
with delight. 

He has a foolish way, too, of getting fond of horses — 
I commit the deliberate '' Icsc-majcste" of saying ''fool- 
ish " because this warm love of animals adds only to 
the many heart-breaks life's treacheries keep in store 
for us. A consolation it is often, to be sure; but taken 
all in all, the tenderness which one feels for horses and 
dogs is prone to make one undergo many stripes, for 
one can sometimes feel almost frantic pain at the loss 
of one of those four-footed friends, whose unswerving 
loyalty and absolute devotion are never at fault, as is 
the case with so many two-footed ones. 

The Emperor enjoys few things better than to go 
with his family for a few weeks' stay on his estate of 
Kadinen, a beautiful place where blooded cattle are bred, 
and where agronomy is carried on as behooves a model 
farm. The whole establishment is kept in apple-pie 
order, and in a constant state of perfection against the 
Imperial owner's frequent and unannounced arrivals. 
It includes immense brick - yards, of which the latter 
is not a little proud; a forge, always in full swing; long 
rows of stables, displaying all the best inventions in the 
way of sanitation and ventilation; some handsome out- 
buildings and granaries, and a goodly number of irri- 
gation canals keeping the broad pastures green through 
the hottest summers. 

The dwelling-house itself is simple, but exceedingly 
comfortable, and over the entrance door an old horseshoe 
is let into the mortar, with the words "Found by Her 
Majesty the Empress, September 20, 1900," inscribed in 
fancy lettering — the lucky and time-honored properties 
of a rusty horseshoe being evidently of some importance 
even to Monarchs. 

When at Kadinen, the green, leafy, silent country is 

229 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

between Germany's Emperor and the world. The Hfe he 
leads there is almost austerely simple in all its customs ; 
his children play and run about joyously, like young 
swallows chirping under the eaves in midsummer, and 
the entire place is wholly unlike an Imperial residence, 
for the pomps and vanities and magnificences of the 
world find not their way there. 

The Empress, in her still, serene, serious fashion, en- 
joys these sojourns exceedingly, and accomplishes all 
the tasks she has set herself with unfaltering persever- 
ance. The peasants for miles around come and con- 
fide their troubles to her where she sits after breakfast 
before the one-storied, mansard-roofed homestead, with 
the gay sunshine gleaming in the gold of her hair, and 
streaming upon the tiny lakelet at her feet, all framed 
with mouse-ear and forget-me-nots. 

Her plain gown, her hands usually filled with flowers, 
her kindly eyes shaded by her large gardening hat, make 
a picture against the brightness of the scene even more 
attractive than her satins and her glorious jewels can 
accomplish, surrounded by all the blaze and splendor 
of a great ball in the Throne- Room of her husband's 
palace. 

To say that the Emperor likes the sea is not to state 
his case fairly, for he does far more than like it. The 
hardest North Sea weather leaves him quite content 
to pace the deck of his yacht in his gleaming oilskins, 
and muddy waters, gray skies, cold rains, and moaning 
winds have no effect whatsoever on his cheerfulness. 
Aye, even fog, this sailor's deadliest foe, cannot do that. 
He loves to watch the angry sun sink, after a stormy 
day, below the red - gray clouds on the tempestuous 
horizon, and to follow with his experienced glance the 
vessel pitching her nose into the green waves, and throw- 
ing from time to time a cloud of spray and spindrift over 

230 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

the length of her decks, hke a bird at its bath. His deep 
eyes laugh then in the shadow of his black sou'wester, 
as they laugh at bad and good weather alike wherever 
he is in command, but especially at bad weather — this 
is a well-defined characteristic of those who have a pas- 
sion for the sea, and for maritime matters in general. 
His interest in that order of things dates from the earli- 
est days of his boyhood, when, as already recorded, he 
played at being Admiral of a numberless toy-fleet on the 
tranquil waters of the " Heiligen-See " at Potsdam. No 
other German Ruler has ever given so much thought 
and attention to naval matters, or acquired so much 
knowledge in that quarter, which is just why he can 
stand on the dripping deck of a pitching and rolling ship 
and laugh. 

Familiarity proverbially brings contempt for danger 
of all kinds. 

To crash into the sea at full speed is far from being 
an unpleasant sensation — for people blessed with those 
convenient members called sea-legs — and to watch each 
separate breaker as it leaps over the bow and washes 
aft in a delicious smother of prismatic color. I heard, 
once, a naval officer who had cruised with the Emperor, 
conclusively remark that he is ''the right sort" — a thing 
I knew before being told — as also that he is what the 
British tar calls very graphically, "a handy man.'' Any- 
way, this eminently versatile Monarch certainly carries 
with him, wherever he goes, the brisk atmosphere of the 
sea and its influence, which tightens a man's muscles 
and teaches him to observe the outward signs of nature 
and of the human race as well. One encounters such 
examples of old Father Ocean's tarry teachings even in 
the life of many a simple sailor, and such encounters 
are invariably pleasing. 

The Northern sea-coast is not lovely, indeed, politeness 

231 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

alone prevents one from frankly calling it ugly, in the 
cold, wind-swept, yellowish nakedness of its endless sand- 
dunes. Everywhere, as far as the eye can reach inland, 
there are mostly sand-dunes, bounded here and there on 
the horizon-line by low pine and juniper-scrub fringed 
with thin, scraggy, maritime vegetation, which is shaken 
by the wind like the hair of drowning creatures, and is 
sometimes almost hidden ovit of sight by the fine, drifting 
sand, which moves eternall}^ to and fro in imitation of 
the neighboring waves. 

Such a combination looks rather forlorn even in the 
height of summer, when the water consents on occasion 
to be blue and the eternal dunes borrow a more golden 
tint from the reflected sun -rays; but to those who have 
been born in that neighborhood, the wellnigh colorless 
uniformity of the landscape, the pearly light which 
broods over these deserts, have their undeniable charm, 
rendered marvellously precious by the fact tliat these 
monotonous plains speak to them of home. Moreover, 
it is a famous background — seaground if you prefer it — 
to set off yachts, taut, trim, and sparkling with fresh 
paint and polished brass — which is the enviable and 
permanent condition of all Emperor WiUiam's sailing 
or steam vessels. 

The Friesian Islands, the Bay of Kiel, those of Dantzig, 
and of Pomerania, Rugen the Fair, the deeply scalloped 
shores of West and of East Prussia, indented and varied 
by glassy sheets of land-locked, motionless water, where 
long-legged, solemn herons stand mournfully — all these 
places are inspected in turn by those luxurious craft, 
whereon the strong individuality of William is so clearly 
discernible, and where even far more than on a line o' 
battle-ship everything seems to fit into place — every 
man into his duties. 



CHAPTER X 

There is one human being within Germany's fair 
Empire who is not at all awed by Germany's stern and 
imposing Ruler — one, and only one, I make bold to state. 
This audacious being is a brisk little lady, very quick 
and graceful, but not in the least fussy, possessed of an 
air of cjuiet and unshakable confidence, a silvery voice, 
a light, fairy -like form, an elastic, joyous step — such as is 
of more service to a woman wherever she may go, and 
whoever she may be, than the most enticing beauty — 
long, thick, silky golden hair, a pair of big, merry, reck- 
less blue eyes, an immense amount of mischief and of 
dauntless pluck, and the best little heart in the world. 
''Voilal" I have named " Priiizcsschcn," the seventh 
child and only daughter of His Majesty Emperor Will- 
iam II. 

This charming little Princess, who is hurrying through 
life and gathering huge enjoyment from the process, 
practical like her illustrious papa, always cheerful, and 
universally adored, is exceedingly astute, and is versed 
in the difficult, and until her advent quite undiscovered, 
art of leading this illustrious parent by a silken thread 
of extreme tenuity, wherever it may be the wish of his 
leader to make him go. 

'' Prinzcsschen" is, if I am to tell the unvarnished 
truth, rather a handful, and she manages her " Papa- 
cJicji" — as she calls him — with vast spirit and a blithe 
and most amusing indifference to the sterner and grim- 
mer sides of this august Monarch's nature. 

233 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

She is wont to remark, in the pretty, idiomatic, and 
somewhat slangy EngHsh she speaks in preference to 
German — which she declares to be a less ''distinguished" 
language — that when '' Papachen" is away it is "jolly 
slow work" for her to be at home! She adores her moth- 
er, but her father she absolutely idolizes, and the feeling 
is reciprocated by the Emperor, who confesses with a 
somewhat shamefaced and wholly delightful smile that 
he is most lamentably at the mercy of this tyrannical 
little lady. 

Her wholesale optimism positively seems to take his 
breath away. She makes her multifarious demands 
upon his time and person with a certain careless 
''aplomb" which must unquestionably prove somewhat 
disconcerting to his autocratic habits. She is a little 
witch, bewilderingly changeable, at one moment a mere 
baby, and in the next quite preternaturally wise, now a 
heedless tomboy, a second later a proud woman of the 
world, appearing to know far more of that abode of 
wisdom than she well can! 

Her delicate coloring comes and goes with every new 
impression; her very eyes seem to continually alter in 
hue and even shape, clouding or brightening, narrowing 
or widening with each different mood, in the most allur- 
ing fashion. She is at the beginning of that brief period 
of a feminine existence wherein she dares to state quite 
clearly and openly what she wants, and she decidedly 
makes the most of it; moreover, when she is chided — 
which does not often occur, for she is, in the main, a 
thoroughly good little Princess — she takes this mild 
form of remonstrance with demurely closed lips, as if 
the only retort she could think of was hardly fit for 
enunciation, nods an airy acquiescence, greatly superior 
to any excuse or argument she could possibly put 
forward, and flits away with the lightness of breeze- 

234 




A LESSOX IN strategy! 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

blown thistledown to seek other causes of contra- 
vention. 

When she wants something very badly indeed " Prin- 
scsschcns" voice becomes strangely deep and she speaks 
with immense solemnity, her rosy face adopts an ex- 
tremely sober expression, and she has a very effective 
way of dropping her thickly fringed eyelids. When her 
demand is rejected her eyes cloud, and a kind of scorn, 
a kind of pity, and a kind of weary longanimity look 
from them. This is her attitude when it is not of " Pa- 
pachen" that she is asking something. In his case 
affairs proceed on different lines, for with him she is 
most adorably coquettish and alluring, while her tac- 
tics would have done honor to Moltke himself. 

With her exquisitely fine golden hair waving in gleam- 
ing, crinkly torrents about her shoulders, she curls her- 
self up upon his knee and gazes at him with great in- 
tentness through her thick lashes — a veritable little 
bundle of wisdom and tenderness — and the smile in the 
depths of her father's eyes is like silent music to her, for 
she understands it admirably, and attunes her own ac- 
cordingly. 

He is, by-the-way, very speedily laid low by her wiles, 
and the group they form would furnish admirable ma- 
terial for a delicious "genre" picture, if only there were 
nowadays any "genre" painters left who knew how to 
paint. 

Poor Autocrat! He realizes his position with the 
painful joyousness of self-defeat! 

When very stern people are won over by mere coaxing, 
one would fancy that they take it hard, but this is not 
the case here, for when the little fairy, having gained her 
point, drifts away on the wings of delight, I am told that 
her willing victim diversifies the humiliation of having 
been so easily beaten by catches of laughter that have 

i6 235 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

no splenetic ring in them, as a vision of the dainty little 
triumphant figure of his all-conquering daughter recur- 
rently 

" — flashes upon that inward eye 
Which is the bliss of solitude!" 

" Prinzesschen,'' as her father did before her, loves 
Potsdam, because there she is as free as the wild birds of 
the Imperial park. She plays on the brim of the lake, 
gazing occasionally into the laughing, dancing, rippling 
waters, blue and green in the shade, and shot with silver 
and golden light, like fluorspar, where the sun touches 
them, as if expecting to see some nix or mermaid emerge 
from its depths to join in her games, for her oft-repeated 
declaration that she is "just like Papachen" has some 
sound truths in it, including the mixture of tireless 
energy and of a slight mysticism — ordinarily severely 
kept in the background — which characterizes them both. 

So, in her quieter moods, " Prinzesschen" loves to sit 
by the lake, listening to the music of the water, of the 
overhanging leaves, and of the birds twittering above 
her head, and when any one comes to disturb her at those 
moments, she holds up a warning finger, and whispers 
a peremptory and admonitory "Sh-h-h," which carries 
with it the conviction that it is wise to leave her undis- 
turbed, for to quote her again, "there is nobody who 
really imderstands her save Papachen.'' 

An attaching, attractive, dehghtful child, this Httle 
"Prinzesschen," and no wonder that she should be the 
apple of her father's eye, for even her freaks and fancies 
are lovable. But alas! alas! the Autocrat has found 
his master, which is of course a lamentable catastrophe! 

Aiter" Papachen" and " Mamachen," the "grown-up " 
of whom "Prinzesschen" is perhaps the fondest is 
" Uncle Henry." 

This charming sailor-Prince is endowed with a love of 

236 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

fun and an infectious gayety which finds immense favor 
with children. He is the hfe of the Court of Berlin, and 
can be characterized by the graphic German adjective, 
" leutsclig," which I fear is as untranslatable as '' gcmiith- 
lichf" The Emperor himself is never so good tempered 
and cheery as when he has his brother near him, for a 
real, deep, and lasting affection exists between these two 
men, dissimilar in a great many ways. 

Prince Henry's lips are almost always curling in 
laughter, his eyes dancing with merriment, when he is 
at home; in an instant his whole face lights up and he 
becomes a mere boy, playing with his children and those 
of his brother as if he enjoyed the romp on his own ac- 
count. One of his delights is also to give himself body 
and soul to the practice of harmless practical jokes, 
which have the gift of invariably making his Imperial 
brother laugh heartily. 

Prince Henry possesses the happy power of devoting 
his entire attention to whatever work or pleasure he 
may, for the moment, have in hand, which is, I have 
noticed, a peculiarity of sailors. Moreover, the more 
one sees of Prince Henry the stronger grows one's admira- 
tion for him, for each day one discovers some new proof 
of his thoughtfulness for others, forgetfulness of self, 
and the extreme goodness of heart and simplicity of 
manner which endear him to all those with whom he 
comes in contact. 

The great and unswerving affection which the Em- 
peror bears this younger brother gives undeniable evi- 
dence of the real magnanimity of the Kaiser's character, 
for it is a sad but a true fact, that everything that could 
possibly have been done in the past to render him jeal- 
ous of Prince Henry was done. He, Prince Henry, was 
always favored at the expense of his elder brother — in 
fact, he was so constantly and openly treated as a privi- 

237 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

leged favorite that any but a very noble and coura- 
geous mind would have been soured against him for all 
eternity. 

There are many sorts of courage in this world — that 
of the soldier, the sailor, the explorer, the courage that 
is strongly dependent on emulation, that which is purely 
defensive, that, again, which faces solitude and con- 
tinuous risks with steady intrepidity; but higher than 
all those is the wonderful courage of the man or wom- 
an who faces, without a murmur or pang of jealousy, 
a long-continued course of injustice; that is different 
from all other courages, for it comes direct from Heaven. 

But there is a sad lack of dramatic effect about awk- 
ward situations when thus courageously accepted. The 
brothers did not scowl at each other, they never assumed 
defiant attitudes and hurled anathemas at one another's 
heads, no sinister glances were exchanged, no sombre 
plots hatched; truly the thing was decidedly tame, 
for William not only succeeded in retaining intact 
the full amount of affection he had always given his 
brother, but went even farther than that, for his sight 
remained so clear throughout that he did Prince Henry 
the rare justice of realizing how innocent he had al- 
ways remained of intentionally attracting towards him- 
self the marked and constant tokens of favoritism 
which were untiringly heaped upon him. 

Alas! why is it that I should be so ill-advised as to 
allow truth to trim my lamp, sober fact to limit my nar- 
row little path, and to have, therefore, to record most 
solemnly here that nothing dramatic occurred, and that 
there never was even so much as a cloud between Will- 
iam and Henry. Indeed, the former plodded on his 
weary way, fighting bravely and doggedly, quietly and 
wittingly, against odds sometimes so disproportionate 
as to render one sceptical regarding the ways and de- 

238 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

signs of Providence, and to-day he and his only brother 
are what they have always been — namely, the most loyal 
and devoted of friends. 

Mutual respect has an important place in the love 
they bear each other, and only too often brotherly af- 
fection is devoid of this quality. Even when William 
knew that his younger brother was more beloved than 
himself, he was content that it should be so — proud of 
his cleverness, his quickness, of his brilliant achieve- 
ments, while Henry was always fully aware that his 
grimmer, sterner brother was a man such as one encoun- 
ters but seldom in this weary worldly pilgrimage. The 
consequence of this mutual appreciation is that there 
is in their intercourse a peculiar half-expressed defer- 
etice for each other's feelings, which is of rare and beau- 
tiful quality. 

Their paths in life divided at a very early age, and as 
each has pressed on with firm and plucky strides upon 
his predestined road, the material distance between 
them has grown apace, but entirely without their ever 
drifting apart in heart or soul. Withal the deeply rooted 
affection between them has remained untouched, un- 
spoiled, and the wonderfully strong tie of kinship and 
of genuine sympathy has never been weakened by the 
strain of years or of distance. 

All the Emperor's sisters, excepting Princess Char- 
lotte (Hereditary Princess of Saxe-Meiningen), who is 
only a year younger, having been born much later 
than himself — that is. Princess Victoria (Princess of 
Schaumburg-Lippe) in 1866, Princess Sophia (Crown 
Princess of Greece) in 1870, and Princess Marguerite 
(Princess of Hesse - Altenbourg) in 1872 — were never 
companions for him. 

With regard to Princess Charlotte, it was different, 
for throughout their early youth they were much 

239 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

thrown together. Indeed, in the days when they were 
both very young, the Emperor showed a strong sym- 
pathy for this sister, since she shared with him the dis- 
advantage of being severely unappreciated, and his 
heart naturally warmed towards the poor little girl, 
who, like himself, was treated with so extreme a degree 
of strictness, snubbed on every occasion, and made to 
feel that the other children were looked upon as vastly 
superior to them in every respect. 

The youth of poor Charlotte was not much happier 
than his own, excepting for the fact that she did not 
take her troubles as seriously to heart as he did. She 
was a graceful, pretty girl, slender, and well made, with 
finely modelled hands and feet, and an expressive and 
interesting countenance. Her eyes, large and vivacious, 
shone with wit; her mouth, not small but charmingly 
curved, showed when laughing two rows of lovely teeth ; 
the nose, which was too long, was delicately shaped, and 
she had a profusion of soft bright hair curving in graceful 
waves around her little ears. 

Very merry and lively was she when not too frequent- 
ly repressed and scolded; indeed, a flood of uncontrol- 
lable activity, mental and physical, seemed to well up 
in her at such times, and she looked as if she were cast- 
ing about for an outlet to this abrupt and vehement 
ardor, coupled with what seemed a torment of uneasi- 
ness and acute impatience. 

Her marriage was something of a surprise to the Ber- 
linese, for Prince Bernhardt of Saxe-Meiningen, although 
a charming cavalier, was not wealthy, nor did he occupy a 
very lofty position, and it was rumored, moreover, that 
love had very little to do on either side with this union, 
which estranged the Princess from her favorite brother, 
and separated them during the greater portion of each 
year. However, to the Princess there was an obvious ad- 

240 




■ 7 c^ i/. 






/ 






CHARLOTTE, HEREDITARY PRINCESS OF SAXE-MEIXIXGEN, 
ELDEST SISTER OF THE EMPEROR 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

vantage in becoming emancipated and free to follow her 
own tastes, and to this she sacrificed everything else. 

Princess Charlotte is to-day still one of the most 
marked personalities of the German Court. She has 
not been always, since her marriage, on the best of 
terms with her Imperial brother, but their alleged 
quarrels have, as all the rest, been greatly exaggerated. 

She is a brilliantly clever woman, endowed with a 
great deal of satirical self-possession, and has an odd 
habit of replying to merely mental questions, or of al- 
luding calmly to unuttered comments, which is rather 
startling, and comes from a very unusual power of divina- 
tion, and from a great facility in reading character. 
Many people find her extremely fascinating, and she is 
undoubtedly ''chic'' — be this trivial expression kindly 
forgiven — she is also a very well read and highly culti- 
vated woman, betraying her deep knowledge of many 
things in a casual fashion, as if entirely free from any 
desire to impose it upon or to share it with others, and, 
although mockery and sarcasm lurk in most of her say- 
ings, she is, however, wherever she goes, generally speak- 
ing, the centre of attraction and the object of much 
homage. 

It is known to very few that the Emperor, while still 
Prince William, spent two weeks in Paris in the summer 
of 1878 — the year of the great Exhibition — with Princess 
Charlotte and her husband. He was attended by Major 
von Liebenau and Lieutenant von Jacobi, and the whole 
party observed throughout their stay the strictest in- 
cognito, carefully avoiding the German Embassy, and 
living very quietly and " hoiirgcoisement " ; Prince Will- 
iam and his gentlemen at the H6tel Mirabeau, while 
Prince Bernhardt and Princess Charlotte, attended by 
Countess Hedwig von Briihl and Count Gotz von Seck- 
endorff, stayed at the H6tel Chatham. 

241 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Prince William enjoyed every moment of this little 
pleasure trip, from the time when the train, wherein he 
travelled quite unobtrusively in his character of private 
gentleman, first began to steam through the flower-stud- 
ded pastures of France, to the minute when he had to 
bid farewell to this fertile land, for which he has alwaj^s 
entertained a deep sympathy. 

He was only nineteen years old then, and took a boy- 
ish delight in making himself personally acquainted 
with its luxuriant beauty, the low, thatch-roofed cot- 
tages smothered in verdure, the beautiful old church- 
spires raising their lacelike stone-work above a sea of 
foliage, and the prosperous farm-houses, of which he had 
read and heard so much. 

The ancient, gray mills dipping their antique paddle- 
wheels into the foam-broidered waters of swift brooks, 
or stretching their gaunt arms and weather-beaten can- 
vas sails to the flower-scented breeze, the aged, square 
towers buried in a labyrinth of veteran trees — the whole 
landscape, so clear, bright, and full of lovely color, pleased 
his artistic eye, and when he reached great, glittering 
Paris his joy knew no bounds. He was enchanted with 
the novelty of it all. 

The weather was already warm, roses were being 
trundled by the million through the brilliant streets, 
filling the air with their fragrance, and he wandered 
about "en toitriste," gazing up rapturously at the splen- 
did twin towers of Notre-Dame, the massive beauty of 
the Arc de Triomphe, the slender elegance of the Colonne 
Vcndome, or loitered on the great bridges spanning the 
Seine, to watch the historic river flowing rapidly and 
eddying round the stone piers beneath him with a liquid, 
refreshing sound. 

All the tragedies, the mysteries, the passions, and the 
sorrows of the "city of revolutions" seemed to pass 

242 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

murmuring through his imagination, as he stood upon 
the thronged pavement during these whimsical "fldn- 
eries." The Louvre looming up in the silvery light of 
the moon made him think of the fateful night of St. 
Bartholomew, and of his illustrious ancestor Coligny, 
for the face of the superb building looks grim, inscru- 
table, and ruthless in this rather theatrical illumination, 
like a face confronting everything in the world without 
fear, without pity, without remorse; and even when he 
saw it at noon, with the glory of the sunrays dancing 
upon it and bringing out the exquisite delicacy of its 
carvings and unrivalled ornamentation, he received from 
it the same impression. 

Versailles also took a strong hold upon his fancy! 
There his grandfather had been proclaimed German 
Emperor, but this was not its chief interest in the eyes 
of a young man whose innate delicacy of feeling slightly 
recoiled at this unnecessarily triumphant act, which, 
counselled and implacably urged by Bismarck — it had 
not by any means met with the unalloyed approval of 
William I. — had caused so much additional humiliation 
to the vanquished. 

No! to Prince William, Louis Quatorze's stupendous 
palace seemed filled yet with the sound of long- vanished 
footsteps. The marvellous fountains of the park, scat- 
tering prismatic drops on the deliciously carved lips of 
their deep basins, fascinated him with their dim sug- 
gestion of a gentle rain of tears falling continually in 
memory of all that was dead and gone. He could see 
in the vast halls and salons of the Castle itself, naught 
but the shadows of long ago falling aslant the polished 
floors, and he was carried away completely by the 
thought of what had been. 

It was only natural that to this enthusiastic imagina- 
tion of nineteen it should have appeared as if the gra- 

243 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

cious forms of La Valliere and of Montespan were still 
roaming about the flower-gardens, as if the clinking spurs 
of d'Artagnan still resounded on the moss-grown pave- 
ment of the " Cour d'Honneur," while the moist, per- 
fumed breath of the " Plaisatmce" appeared to the 
Prussian Prince like a sad, live thing, striving to edge 
its weary way among a sacrilegious multitude of sight- 
seers and the flowing tides of modern life, towards the 
few who could feel and understand. 

The "Exposition Univcrselle" interested him, "inais ce 
n'etait phis la meme chose.'' He enjoyed it all well enough, 
and with his ever - consuming thirst for learning he 
made much of the hours he spent there, putting them 
to excellent use, but the past of France was what electri- 
fied him. It brought him new and delightful sensations 
to study it on the spot, to stand as it were on the edge 
of vanished centuries, looking back on long vistas of 
experiences and adventures redolent with courage and 
glory. 

This was what he liked. 

To go and hear Sarah Bernhardt's melodious voice in 
" Hernani," to lunch with Sir Richard Wallace at Baga- 
telle, to drive in the Bois de Boulogne as a mere unit amid 
a crowd of ardent pleasure-seekers, greedy financiers, 
noisy journalists, canary -haired "cocoUes," bumptious 
politicians, loudly garbed " Rastaqouaires," was novel 
and amusing, but it did not stir him as did his retro- 
spective wanderings through old Paris, although he felt 
throughout the strange attraction of crowds, and the 
infinite possibilities of adventure that lurked therein. 

The young Princes and the Princess did modern Paris 
very thoroughly, piloted by the late Count Arco and by 
my present husband, who had been one of William's 
boyhood friends and playmates. They even went up in 
the huge " Baloii-Captif" tethered on the Place des 

244 




BERNHARDT, HEREDITARY I'RIXCE OF SAXE-MEIXIXGEX, 

HUSBAXD OF PRINCESS CHARLOTTE, THE EMPEROR's 

ELDEST SISTER 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Tuileries, but such experiences, although furnishing a cer- 
tain glamour of excitement and considerable " imprevu " 
can scarcely be reckoned among the romantic aspects 
of their sojourn. 

Being given the fact that their presence was entirely 
unknown to the official world and to the public, it is 
interesting to speculate as to what might have hap- 
pened had the frivolous Parisian populace, whose sym- 
pathies ever change and flow this way and that, now 
circling about one personage, now about another, dis- 
covered the Prince's identity. Would the feeling of 
the moment have made of him a victim or a hero ? 

In those days the hatred for everything German was 
still very bitter in the capital of France — indeed, among 
the "bourgeoisie" and the working-classes it had some- 
thing unutterably sordid, coarse, and brutal in its tenor; 
the lower and middle-class French could not behave de- 
cently to any German-speaking person then, and had they 
been translated " eii bloc" to the Heavenly City — horrible 
thought ! — they would have wandered through its gold- 
en streets seeking what Teuton they might insult and 
possibly devour. Indeed, there was a sort of supreme 
obstinacy in their inability to refrain from invective, or 
to listen to the dictates of reason and of decency. Was 
not the late King Alfonso XII. of Spain subjected to all 
sorts of indignities, some years later, by the Parisian 
"canaille," solely on account of his having been ap- 
pointed honorary colonel of a German Lancer Regiment 
by Emperor William I. ? 

On the other hand, the bravery shown by Prince Will- 
iam in thus coming to place himself in the lion's mouth 
might have caused one of those revulsions of feeling 
which no one can foretell, and Paris might have gone 
down before him with that sudden and complete pros- 
tration of itself before a new idol which is so character- 

245 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

istic of it, and is so exceedingly misleading to the idols 
inclined to imagine that their apotheoses will be eternal. 

Yet, as a rule, the subterranean forces of Paris are 
more apt to display themselves unpleasantly, and to 
pour out of their sombre retreats, like snakes when 
they scent prey. The spectacle is not exhilarating or 
comforting, nor is Paris now a pleasing city for Royal- 
ties to visit, either incognito or otherwise, for common- 
sense has long ere this hidden its diminished head be- 
fore the sovereign will of its gutters and slums. 

However, Prince William was not a man to be moved 
by considerations of prudence, for, as he himself says, 
"if one were to take into serious consideration the dan- 
gers represented by Nihilistic bombs, Socialistic pro- 
jectiles, and the inconstancy of mobs, why, one would 
have no time to do one's work." So he calmly con- 
tinued to roam about those corners of Paris which re- 
tain the memories and the flavor of other days, and are 
untouched as yet by all the changes of our prosaic, lev- 
elling, demolishing period, and he spent many a summer 
afternoon wandering in those mazes of narrow streets 
that are practically unknown to the ordinary tourist. 
Truly brave people have an immense scorn for the ills 
that the populace may wreak. There were many such 
who ascended the steps of the guillotine in the Reign of 
Terror, without giving the abject, unwashed mob below 
the gratification of being able to flatter itself that the 
breath of those doomed aristocrats came in the least 
more quickly, or that their pulses were in the least un- 
even. 

I do not suppose that all the visits William has paid 
to the other great capitals of Europe since his accession 
to the Throne have given him the pleasure afforded by 
this secret trip to Paris. An official visit there is still 
quite out of the question, although the kindliness of 

246 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

his attitude towards that once so great country ought 
to have borne better fruit than the small and mean 
acrimony with which it was met in most quarters. 

His conciliatory intentions have been and are still 
very marked, and it is a pity that France should have 
so entirely forgotten her ancient traditions of perfect 
and gracious "courtoisic," and the politeness which a 
civilized people should consider it an honor to display 
towards an illustrious and generously inclined Sovereign. 

It is true that a nation which allows itself to be in- 
fluenced by politicians such as Millerand, Cassagnac, 
Combes, Georges Berry, Maurice Barres, Edouard Lock- 
roy, and that interesting personage, Rochefort — "en 
voila pour tons Ics gouts" — can no longer be regarded 
as sane, or even as able to determine what is seemly 
and what is not, else it would be patent even to French 
eyes that as Emperor William was eleven years old in 
1870-71, it is singularly illogical to make him responsible 
for the "faits d'armes" of the generations preceding 
him, or for the deeds that may or may not have been 
committed by Germans while on French territory during 
his childhood. All this is puerile and futile, and cal- 
culated to give one but a poor opinion of the so-called 
progress of civilization! Francois I. thought it not be- 
neath his dignity to accord a magnificent reception to 
Charles V., whose prisoner he had been, nor to show 
him all the respect and deference due to an honored 
guest; but France's present "excess of patriotism" does 
not permit her to imitate so chivalrous an example. 

One can scarcely be surprised, however, since a na- 
tion that destroys its altars and makes war upon harm- 
less nuns and priests, nay, expels from its midst with 
unparalleled brutality the " Petite s Soeurs dcs Pauvres" 
and the " Freres de Saint Vincent de Paid," whose sole 
occupation and aim in life was to nurse the poor and 

247 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

sick, and to beg from the wealthy wherewithal to assist 
those in need, is surely on a precipitous downward 
grade, leading to the final abyss of anarchy and disso- 
lution. 

Never has Emperor William done a kinder, a wiser, 
or a more diplomatic thing than when he opened wide 
the doors of Germany to the religious congregations ex- 
pelled from France; because, after all, let people say 
what they will, they have been cruelly treated in their 
own land, which strangely forgets that, to say the very 
least, it is in monasteries that the refinements of civili- 
zation have originated, that the fine arts and sciences 
have always found a refuge, and that the primor- 
dial wealth of ungrateful France had its root, within the 
walls of those busy, untiring " Cojifreries," who taught 
the peasants, in days of long ago, the precious secrets 
of wood-lore and agriculture. 

Our modern times are so prosaic and so absolutely 
devoid of charm, and the life most people lead now is so 
unattractive a routine, so hurried, so material, and so 
gross under its crackling varnish, that truth and the 
past are generally quite ruthlessly pushed hand in 
hand to the wall. Emperor William is not blinded, 
however, by the intense restlessness, the incessant in- 
trigue, the endless conflicts of minds and beliefs which 
characterize our epoch, and his "haute politique" de- 
serves the name in full, for it is wholly innocent of all 
trace of " parti pris." 

He does not pledge himself to one side or another, 
but takes his time, and looks into the heart of a ques- 
tion before deciding upon it, bringing his conscience to 
bear fully upon his final resolve. His policies are found- 
ed upon real conviction, and are never a mere mechani- 
cal repetition of what others have thought or have 
done; he is guided simply by his ideas of right and 

248 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

wrong, and is quite unbiased. Such singleness of pur- 
pose and honesty of research are things too meritorious 
in themselves to need encomium; and how different 
they are, too, from the rash and blind acceptance of a 
policy merely inherited or advised, which so frequently 
disfigures the conduct of a "Chef de parti.'' 

Most political leaders talk a great deal, but in their 
hearts they know well that they simply try to patch 
up what is amiss, so that existing circumstances may 
last out their own time, and that they really care ex- 
traordinarily little about anything else that may come 
afterwards. " Apres nous le delude!" is so convenient a 
maxim. Now William II. thinks for himself; he ear- 
nestly wishes not only to be of use to his subjects now, 
and to his generation, but also to accomplish much that 
will be good and profitable in an after-time. None bet- 
ter than he realize the priggishness, the pomposity, and 
the scientific " wind-baggishness " of the world's present 
status, but none have known so well how to squeeze 
out what good the modem orange may contain for the 
benefit of his own people, for their culture and their edu- 
cation and prosperity. He is aware that the food must 
be suited to the eater. His policy is an appeal to the 
people, they say? Ah, yes, so it is, no doubt; but with 
what consummate art does he lead the people to the 
table whereon the banquet he has prepared for them 
appetizingly smokes! 

The secret of statesmanship is to bend the mutations 
of the nation's will to one's own; is it not so ? The great 
statesman does not admit this, of course, because being 
a great statesman he knows that if you want the masses 
to go your way, it is best and wisest to allow them to 
believe that they go their own. That is where clever- 
ness and "doigtc" come in, and that is just the sort of 
delicate political "doigte" that the Emperor possesses! 

249 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Whether one be a Sovereign or a subject it is work 
that wins the day, and work is Emperor WilHam's Pal- 
ladium. He works almost without cessation, and this 
is the secret of his extraordinary weight and influence, 
not only as a Monarch, but, as a man, the source of his 
extraordinarily keen and diversified knowledge. Not 
content with a mere amateurish and superficial infor- 
mation, he probes to the very depths of his studies with 
quite phenomenal energy and perseverance. There is 
scarcely a subject upon which he is not well informed; 
there exist professional mechanics, engineers, chemists, 
architects, archaeologists, philologists, and scientists of 
every description whose breath has fairly been taken away 
by the extraordinary fashion in which he has discussed 
with each of them his own speciality, displaying an ac- 
curacy of learning and information which seems almost 
unexplainable, being given that he is comparatively 
speaking a young man, and has led so busy a life that 
no great extent of time can have been devoted to the 
study of such sciences. 

Indeed, it has been facetiously stated in the press of 
many lands during the last sixteen years that the Kaiser 
"knows all about everything that exists!" I trust that 
the preceding pages may have convinced my readers 
that there is more than a spice of truth in this peri- 
patetic joke, since no one possessing the full use of his 
or her senses can deny that he is a splendid soldier, an 
equally good sailor, a successful sportsman, a musician 
of no mean talent, an excellent painter and draughts- 
man, a first-class writer and poet, too — "a ses heiires" 
— an engineer and architect of considerable ability, be- 
sides being a scholar of repute and a thorough states- 
man, without mentioning the fact that he speaks nine 
or ten languages fluently, and is one of the most elo- 
quent orators of modern times. 

250 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Several of these languages have been acquired since 
his accession to the Throne, and amid all his enormous 
stress and strain of business. Swedish, for instance, he 
learned — as he humorously remarks — to "spring a sur- 
prise" upon his cousin, the Crown Prince of Sweden. 
And surprised the Crown Prince most emphatically was 
when, on the occasion of one of Emperor William's recent 
visits to King Oscar's dominions, at a dinner following 
some shooting on the splendid game preserves of Count 
Thott, the latter's Imperial guest suddenly volunteered a 
remark in Swedish to the effect that the weather had been 
abominable throughout the day, but he hoped it would 
be fairer on the morrow! All the Swedes present gazed 
at the Emperor in open-mouthed amazement, almost 
unable to believe their ears, especially when WilHam 
continued to converse fluently in their native idiom, 
just as if he had been familiar with it all his life. Such 
a delicate compliment was, of course, highly appreciated. 

How he ever finds time — as he does — to devote to 
music, painting, and writing is a question as yet unsolved, 
and how a man of his temperament can submit himself 
to an iron routine that allows but very limited oppor- 
tunities for recreation and amusement, or even rest, 
would be equally a mystery did not one remember that 
he has at his disposal the amulet of imagination, which 
can instantaneously transmute the baser metal of duty 
into poetic gold, even as it made unattractive Sologne 
blossom like the Vale of Kashmir for George Sand, and 
the dreary memory of the frozen desert of Poland glitter 
like a dazzling mirage for Chopin. This faculty of the 
true artist for idealization is indeed a precious gift, 
without which the weary load of unremitting labor that 
presses upon his shoulders would weigh tenfold the 
heavier. 

Music is really one of his principal relaxations. He 
n 251 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

possesses a wonderfully complete and valuable musical 
library, containing numerous volumes of the printed 
and manuscript harmonies of four centuries, and his 
knowledge on that subject, too, is remarkably inti- 
mate. 

There are many — even great artists — who are apt to 
be at fault in their interpretation of music, but this is a 
reproach which cannot be addressed to him, especially 
when he sings, for besides being gifted with a very good 
voice, he knows exactly how a melody should be ren- 
dered ; with him Apollo's lyre is not a school-room play- 
thing. 

His principal contribution to music is the "Sang am 
Aegir," a " Morceau" of great power and originality, 
which begins with the words "O Aegir Hcrr der Fluthen, 
dem Nix tind Ncx sich bciigt" (O Aegir, Lord of the 
Waves, whom mermaids and mermen revere). The 
half sad, half heroic strain of the melody has the sense 
of some mystery about it, of something concealed yet 
suggested, which is very fascinating and attaching, and 
it is wonderful to realize that it was created by a man 
who lives for the greater portion of his life in an atmos- 
phere of practical politics and heavy cares, obliged to 
put forward at every instant the hardest, keenest intel- 
lectuality in order to cope with the difficulties of his 
lofty office. 

When, after an evening devoted to melody, he is met 
in the early morning by the heaps of official dry-as- 
dust papers covering his writing-table, he must some- 
times, for all his philosophy and extreme adaptability 
to the surroundings of the moment, sigh at this brusque 
re-entrance into a land of prose, where nothing roman- 
tic can possibly intrude itself, and which must occasion- 
ally seem insupportably absurd to him in its pompous 
fret and fumings. 

252 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

One accomplishment of the Emperor's which is char- 
acteristic of his tastes, as regards both its rarity as a 
study and the power of its appeal to the sense of the 
beautiful, is his knowledge of gems. 

There are few jewel merchants who can boast of so 
perfect a judgment of precious stones as that which he 
possesses. He is a really remarkable connoisseur, can 
tell after one long gaze within the changeful light of a 
gem its accurate value, and is said to be rarely at fault 
in his verdict. 

It is quite impossible to mention before him a gem of 
which he has not heard, jargoons, amazzonites, argirites, 
variolites, asterias, chalcedony and beryls being as famil- 
iar to him as emeralds, sapphires, diamonds, and rubies 
are to the ordinary layman, and when he selects a jewel 
one can be certain that it is as perfect as a jewel can be. 

And what, after all, is more fascinating than a precious 
stone ? What can be compared with the soft beauty of 
a flawless emerald — save the mark! — the all-conquering 
silver fires of a truly white diamond, the endless depth 
of a clear, purplish-blue sapphire, with its exquisite 
blending of two regally wedded colors, so translucent, 
so serenely pure, and which looks as if it must be velvety 
to the touch ? What glory can equal that which slum- 
bers in the torchlike luminance of a ruby, what delicious 
delicacy is that of the pearl ? 

The beautiful, eloquent silence of gems takes those 
who understand it straight into fairy-land, and makes 
them dream beautiful dreams, because gems have no 
connection with the loathsome things of life, and being 
deathless are a joy forever. Women are as a rule sup- 
posed to love jewels — they think they love them — but 
their greed for them is mostly prompted by vanity, 
since they think that to wear such gorgeous ornaments 
enhances their appearance, and arouses jealousy in the 

253 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

hearts of other women — not an aim to be despised by 
them — but that is not real love. The true love of gems 
is based on a comprehension of the potent charm wield- 
ed by the crystallized magnificence of objects so greatly 
impregnated with a mystery, which gives full scope to 
the flow of imagination and of phantasy. 

No artistic temperament is complete without this 
particular love. Some people may think this statement 
exaggerated. How few understand the inexpressible 
attraction of those beautiful things coming from far 
away, from the heart of mountains or the translucent 
depths of the ocean, and which have journeyed, many 
of them, since the beginning of the world, from country 
to country, from land to land, accompanied by an ever- 
increasing legendary value, by the renown of a magical 
loveliness which nothing can surpass, that has watched 
the march of centuries with the same unimpaired clear 
serenity, the same imperturbable and imperishable 
lustre ! 

Is it strange that we poor dreamers of dreams, whose 
lives are so short and so arduous — whatever may be our 
status — should find solace and comfort in gazing at the 
unchangeable splendor of an object that we fancy has 
endured since the rising of that terrific tempest which 
roared through the black night when the world was 
born, and has been exposed to the amazing vicissitudes 
of millions of years without losing a tithe of its marvel- 
lous vivaciousness, its delicious power to grasp the sun- 
rays and treasure them within their innermost being, 
to smile back even at the faint luminance of the moon ? 

Is it so incomprehensible that we, who make of them 
the trusted messengers of love and of gratitude, the 
heralds of passion, the interpreters of our innermost 
feelings, should feel that they are not soulless or frigid, 
but that, like living creatures, they have the power of 

254 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

realizing our tenderness for them and of reciprocating it 
after their own fashion — by bringing us hick, perchance, 
or merely even by dispelling with their exquisite radi- 
ance the gloom and discouragement which so often, alas ! 
enwrap our poor weak souls when we experience more 
than usual the bitterness of life ? 

An occultistic theory! Oh! not at all; a very well 
proven fact, on the contrary! How could it be possible 
that gems which can give a thousand things — light, 
color, brilliance, delight, not to mention envy, jealousy, 
and all their derivatives — could receive a deep, genuine 
love and remain absolutely unaffected thereby? Do 
they not really retain amid all their prismatic fires the 
fire of such a love ? But, bah! Here I am allowing myself 
to be carried away by my own pet theories concerning 
the eternal law of exchange — that law which governs 
the universe, and which so few interpret aright, and also 
by my love for those beautiful pure things brought from 
the heart of the mountains or the depths of the oceans, 
and which alone here below are exempt from undergo- 
ing that hideous transformation which death brings to 
all others. 

I am far from my starting-point, and yet, mayhap, 
not so very much so, since the above lines can very well 
serve as an explanation of Emperor William's fondness 
for, and marvellous knowledge of, gems. 

As is his invariable custom, he has made a point to 
find out all he could about the nature, the sources, the 
mining, the cutting, the testing, and the value of pre- 
cious stones. Much study and attention is required to 
attain a thorough comprehension of their properties 
and appearance, but to the really cultured it is one of 
singular interest, and one of the best known experts in 
Europe declared, not long ago, that William II. is pos- 
sessed of a quite unusual, practical, and scientific under- 

255 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

standing in this matter, which in Germany is known 
under the special appellation of " Edclsteinkundc'" (the 
science of gems), and includes crystallography, physics, 
chemistry, and geology. 

A remarkably clever draughtsman, the Emperor has 
himself designed a great many of the Empress's jewels — 
a diadem, for instance, of a singular elegance of form, the 
delicate diamond trellis-work of which is interspersed 
with magnificent pear-shaped pearls and surmounted 
by huge brilliants of the very finest water. 

Some time ago Her Majesty appeared at the "Opcni 
Siibscriptions Bdllc" wearing such splendid jewels that 
two celebrated experts who were present declared that 
their long experience had never shown them anything 
comparable. About her throat the Imperial lady had 
a necklace of enormous and absolutely priceless emeralds 
of an exquisite clear dark green — those rarely seen emer- 
alds which look alive and full of a sort of marvellously 
eager and yet calm and soothing animation. Other 
emeralds sent forth their mysterious green lustre from 
the front of her corsage, which was literally covered 
with chains, plaques, and loops of diamonds flashing 
white, pink, yellow, green, and purple lightning as she 
moved. Big, smooth, milky-white pearls of enormous 
size, and still more enormous value, gleamed gently as 
they drooped over her white bosom, in the midst of the 
blinding flames of the diamonds. Quivering sprays of 
brilliants were scattered over her primrose-hued train, 
emitting sparks of frosty light, while the centre of all 
this splendor was formed by the really gigantic diamond 
which once glittered upon Napoleon I.'s. hat, and was 
found lying near his abandoned travelling-carriage on 
the battle-field after his defeat at Waterloo. Indeed, 
diamonds and emeralds shone all over her, from head 
to foot, with a cool glitter like that of moon-rays upon 

256 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

ice and dew-drops upon foliage, while her pearls — the 
largest and purest pearls that ever Indian diver plunged 
for into the blue depths of the tropic seas — attracted 
the gaze and envy of all the women present. Empress 
Augusta- Victoria's pearls are worth millions, for they 
are so large, so perfect in color and shape, so lavish 
in their profusion that few Regalias contain such 
treasures. 

The Emperor is very lavish in his gifts, and takes a 
great deal of pleasure in preparing surprises of a very 
delectable nature for his wife and children, continually 
plotting, planning, designing, and ordering, with an air 
of delightful secrecy, all sorts of beautiful and appro- 
priate things to afford them pleasure. Birthdays, as 
well as all anniversaries, are remembered with punc- 
tilious "lueijwirc dii coeiir" by him. 

At Easter he romps with his children in the Imperial 
park, searching for the daintily decorated and painted 
eggs which the Empress has herself concealed in the 
moss and ivy garlands of the undergrowth, and Christ- 
mas is celebrated at the Court of Berlin with extraordi- 
nary magnificence, although quite "en famille," for the 
Emperor makes a point of devoting himself entirely, on 
that occasion, to his wife and children. 

It takes a man who, like William II., has a thorough- 
ly clean bill of moral health, to throw himself body and 
soul, as he does, into the spirit of these Christmas prep- 
arations. He is here, there, and everywhere, at one 
and the same time, working with dashing rapidity, ac- 
complishing unheard of feats of agility, directing ev- 
erything, however, without any fuss or undue excite- 
ment. The almost boyish delight which he takes in these 
occupations is charming to witness, and in expectation 
of the great moment when presents will be exchanged, 
and the splendid trees lighted up, his mental appetite 

257 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

for a full meed of joy seems, like that of the children, to 
grow sharper and sharper. 

Berlin is always very brilliant at Christmas-time; the 
shops teem with gorgeous trifles, those occupied by 
''Delicatessen'' displaying a Gargantuan profusion of 
good things to eat, decorated with sprigs of holly and 
garlands of small pine-branches. In the game-dealers' 
windows squadrons of quail and gayly plumed pheas- 
ants, mountains of partridges and quantities of wild 
boar and venison haunches attract the gaping attention 
of the multitudes, who have tramped all day through the 
snow-cushioned streets to purchase such holiday fare as 
the condition of their finances will allow. Everybody 
carries strings of parcels, while laughing children, whose 
ardor is wrought to fever-heat by the splendor of the 
spectacle, accompany their parents, with cheeks flushed 
to a rosy red and eyes sparkling like stars. 

Gliding rapidly and unostentatiously in and out of 
the throng, a small dark brougham conveys the Empress 
to the establishments she patronizes, for she, too, makes 
a point of doing some present-buying personally and 
quite simply, just as if at a sign from her little finger all 
the merchants in her capital would not empty their 
choicest goods into the palace for her private selection. 

Life has, for rich and poor alike, some deliciously dec- 
orated moments, Christmas is certainly the best of 
them all, and for Emperor William it is indeed a red- 
letter day. He loves to give pleasure to everybody, 
from the Empress down to the humblest kitchen-maid 
in his palace or carriage-washer in his vast stables — 
whom he would not be able to recognize if he met them 
elsewhere, and whose names he could not remember if 
asked to mention them. The latter, as all the Imperial 
servants, receive from him at Christmas a "special" 
souvenir. I advisedly say "special," for each present 

258 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

is something quite personal, and has been the subject 
of much thought and of many anxious consultations 
between the Imperial couple. 

During the weeks preceding the great day, the book 
wherein Her Majesty has carefully and neatly inscribed 
all the gifts given on preceding occasions, is meticulously 
perused, so that there can be no danger of repetition in 
the selection of the thousand and one articles to be pur- 
chased. Moreover, by means best known to themselves, 
and which must be singularly ingenious and delicately 
carried out, the individual tastes of all the palace ser- 
vants are ascertained beforehand by the Emperor and 
Empress, as well as their particular little desires, and 
the latter are, therefore, satisfied with an exactitude 
smacking almost of the supernatural. If eyes were 
made for seeing and admiring, if hearts were made to 
understand, then must one admire and confess one's ad- 
miration of such exquisite forethought and kindness. 

The early morning of December 24th finds everybody 
wide awake at the " Neues Palais'' — where Christmas 
is usually spent — everybody fresh and wide awake and 
joyous, and perfectly in the scheme of the great festival. 
The transports of delight to which the children give vent 
as they flutter hither and thither, avoiding with comical 
leaps and bounds the vicinity of Kaiserin's great ante- 
chamber and the " Miisclielsaal," where preparations 
are still going on which are to remain a dead secret till 
the evening; the funny little way in which " Prinzess- 
chen" cocks her pretty head a bit on one side to gaze 
with critical enjoyment at the batch of presents she her- 
self has prepared for her parents and brothers; the gam- 
bols and frisky scurryings of the younger boys along the 
interminable corridors, are the most charming things 
of their kind one can imagine, but the most marvellous 
and interesting of all is the Emperor's behavior. 

259 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

Surely, on Christmas Day, he is at his very "bestcst" 
best! To see him then one would think that the mill- 
stone of care has been lifted once and for all from his 
shoulders. He talks and jokes and laughs from the 
moment he appears upon the scene, as if he himself 
had become once more a mere youngster, and displays 
the qualities of the most jovial tempered man out 
of paradise, for he is not only full of fun himself, 
but the cause of continual fun and delight in others. 
It would be impossible while watching him to realize 
that he has already passed, if but by a little, what the 
poet calls "the flower of a sound man's youth, the 
golden, gladsome, romantic age of forty!" 

He inhales with the appreciation of a thorough con- 
noisseur the pungently delicious and exquisitely resin- 
ous smell of the fir-branches, so strong upon the warm 
air of the grand halls and salons as to seem almost 
ponderable, and which strangely intensifies the sweet- 
ness of the whole performance; he receives with merry 
effusion the Captain of the First Regiment of Guards, 
who presents himself punctually at eleven o'clock at 
the palace, bearing the Regiment's Christmas greetings 
and offering — a stupendous cake magnificently adorned 
and displaying on its rich bosom, amid brightly colored 
sugar arabesques, a black eagle surmounting a wide 
"banderole" with the words " Snitm-Ciiiqite" inscribed 
upon it. This is a custom handed down from the past, 
and which pleases the Emperor immensely, for the quaint 
little ceremony is as scrupulously carried out as it was 
in the far-away days when the Guards were granted the 
privilege of providing their Sovereign-Chief with this 
Yule delicacy. 

At twelve o'clock precisely the Imperial family as- 
semble in the breakfast -room for an informal "dejeuner 
CL la fourchette," and with a view of making his children 

260 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

laugh, the Emperor, who usually cares very little what 
he eats or drinks, pretends to be ravenously hungry, 
and examines the various dishes with the devoutness of 
an impassioned ''gourmet." 

"Omelette, beefsteak, potatoes, ' en robe de chamhre,' " 
or " grilled chicken, truffled pate" — as the case may be, 
he enumerates, shaking his head solemnly in admiration 
of the good fare set before him. "What a deliciously 
sustaining meal," he continues, "and how appropriate 
to this festive occasion! Christmas confers upon its 
devotees an unbounded appetite, and if they did not 
get the proper variety and quantity of food on this 
day they would not be equal to the burden of joy that 
is to follow" — and at the sound of his ringing laugh the 
Empress beams with delight, the boys expand, and 
" Prinsesschen" leaves her place to climb on his lap 
and pull his mustaches, all ceremony, etiquette, and 
other similar " trouble- fetes" being banished for the 
nonce. 

" PapacJien" chaffs and pokes fun at his six stalwart 
sons, but " Prinzesscheu" gets naught but caresses, his 
voice softens every time he speaks to her, and he selects 
with humorously anxious care the daintiest morsels and 
the truffled portions of every dish for the little lady's 
delectation, who with a coquettish little mien opens her 
rosy mouth dutifully to receive them. 

The yellowest melancholy would not be proof against 
such a scene of unrestrained happiness and simple ten- 
derness. But soon parents and children tear themselves 
from the pleasures of the table and are up and doing 
again, " PrinzesscJieji," first, however, hovering near 
her beloved " Papachen," busy with a game of make- 
believe — pretending that she is going to make a break for 
the " strengvcrbotcn" rooms, now gingerly, with slow, cal- 
culating up-liftings and down-puttings of her little feet, 

261 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

stealing a silent march towards the proscribed region, 
now rapidly veering and noiselessly bounding forward, 
now halting, recoiling, masking herself behind some cur- 
tain or heavy piece of furniture, and peering warily over 
it, to be finally caught in all her grace and mischievous- 
ness within the circle of his arms and smothered with 
kisses. 

Immediately after an early dinner, which is but a 
repetition of that joyous luncheon, the whole family 
make their way rapidly to the Empress's great ante- 
chamber, where the servants are already expectantly 
gathered, and everybody is at once ushered amid a reg- 
ular burst of enthusiasm into the glittering presence of 
His Majesty the Christmas-tree. 

Ah! what a tree it is! A giant among trees, mag- 
nificently vivid with its intensely green branches, its 
myriad pink, white, blue - and - yellow candles tipped 
with gleaming fire, which is dazzlingly reflected in the 
stars and crescents of gold and silver, the crystal icicles, 
mother-o' -pearl snowballs, and the hundreds of other 
multicolored trifles with which it is loaded. 

This is the tree especially prepared for the palace 
servants and employes, and the Emperor and Em- 
press, aided by their children, distribute every gift in 
person, accompanying each one with a few kind words 
and wishes, the Kaiser being in the habit of emphasizing, 
by a little tap on the shoulder and a singularly bright 
and cheery smile, those presents which he hands to old 
and especially valued servitors. 

Patiently the children, thinking their white thoughts, 
dreaming their blissful dreams of a now very near future 
indeed, await their turn, while their mother's face, as 
she glides from one to the other recipient of her bounty, 
with her hands full of useful and pretty things, is so 
tender and so happy that all those who watch her feel 

262 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

that they are in the presence of that most blessed and 
rare of all living beings, an absolutely good and true 
woman. 

Emperor William's home is a garden of beautiful ideas 
at Christmas, that is very certain. 

When every servant has been spoken to individually, 
when the grateful and reverential " handkiisse" are over, 
then, and then only, do parents and children betake 
themselves to the mysterious '' Muschelsaal," towards 
which for many days past their thoughts have con- 
verged, and where the latter are at last allowed to go 
and gaze at that ninth wonder of the world — fir-trees 
that bear golden roses and silver lilies. 

The " Muschclsaal" is bordered on each side, for the 
occasion, by verdure interspersed with holly and mistle- 
toe, forming two graceful hedges of deep, almost solemn 
color, wherein dark green merges into metallic green, 
and metallic green dissolves into waxen whiteness and 
fiery carmine — that intense red and frosty pallor which 
much artificial light coaxes from the freshly culled ber- 
ries of the plants consecrated by time - honored usage 
to Father Christmas. 

At the lower end of the great room is the "Creche," 
a grotto roofed and walled with boughs, arranged to 
represent the stable of Bethlehem, and which contains 
lifelike waxen figures of the Holy Virgin and Child, of 
St. Joseph, of the Shepherd Kings, and of the animals 
which had the privilege of sharing their lowly dwelling 
with the infant Lord. 

This "Creche" is always in exquisite taste, not over- 
loaded with ornaments, but made to look like a dim, 
brown little stable — the same where two thousand years 
ago the Wise Men worshipped. Save for the tinted light 
that filters through the green boughs and the magnificence 
of the superb apartment where it is built, it is a perfect 

263 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

evocation of the past, with its hidden and unutterable 
simphcity and sweetness. The Blessed Mother's half- 
kneeling figure, her delicate profile, her long, unbound 
hair, her very garments are rendered with amazing ar- 
tistic reality; the "Magi," prostrated devoutly in their 
awe and wonder before the tiny Babe cradled in His 
Mother's arms, fill that dim little stable with a glory 
eyes are not needed to see, with a music ears are not 
needed to hear, and from which seems to be diffused all 
peace, all grace, all benediction. 

I need not add that it is to the Emperor that is due 
the amazing completeness of this ideal little nook, which 
he causes to be prepared each year under his immediate 
direction, and to be carried out according to his own 
ideas — beautiful and holy ones in every detail — down to 
the humble and lowly attitudes of those kingly shep- 
herds offering their gorgeous gifts with a diffidence 
which clearly says: 

" D amine, non sum digmis !" 

Outside this magic cave the gold and silver flowering 
Imperial trees raise their marvellous branches, gloriously 
illuminating the presents charmingly disposed on square, 
white-draped tables. 

The children are now clearly beside themselves with 
joy, their hair is ruffled, the wholesome pink of their 
comely faces shows a deeper flush, their lips are parted, 
their chests heave, while curious, expectant, eager, they 
open parcel after parcel, make inextricable knots of the 
ribbons carefully and gracefully looped by their mother's 
supple, clever fingers, and when a new surprise is re- 
vealed, cry out in a dozen different tones: "Oh! Papa- 
chen! Oh! Mamachen!" the immensity of their varied 
emotions precluding the possibility of lengthier speech. 

264 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

In the mean while His Majesty Wilham II. is just as 
keenly interested in his own presents as the youngest 
of his sons — betrays just as many many -colored as- 
tonishments and delights. His face is positively ra- 
diant, he bends down and peers intently into boxes and 
packages, from whence he raises half - laughing, half- 
moist eyes when something particularly to his taste has 
been discovered. 

Christmas packages are so mysterious — aren't they? 
Filled with so many enchanting things, and such deep 
pleasures grow out of them ! That's why they cause both 
pensiveness and laughter! Now his wife and children 
are in his arms — as many of the children as he can pos- 
sibly hold at the same time without crowding out his 
" Dornroschen" — now they have all fluttered away again 
in quest of some new reason for fluttering back once 
more with another chorus of brimming gratitude. 

The Empress is sure to find among her new treasures 
some beautiful jewel designed by her Lord, for the Em- 
peror likes to give things that endure and are "a joy 
forever," and her blushing thanks are so girlish that 
they must surely carry him back to the days of their 
romantic courtship. 

And now it is late — very late — fly away to your little 
bed, happy " Priiizesschcn." "Gute Nacht." Princes 
Joachim, Oscar, August, Adalbert, Eitel: God speed 
you! Prince Wilhelm, Crown Prince of Prussia, the 
Christmas festivities are over, and to-morrow life begins 
again with its burden of joys and of labors. Hurry! 
hurry! know you not that to-morrow before daybreak 
your father will as usual give you the example of what 
a Prince should do, by being back at his task again — 
hard at work. 



* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


265 


* 


* 


* 


* 



imperAtor et rex 

Hard at work, yes, for the good of his Realm and of 
the fifty milHons of people who so rightly trust him! 
Of course it is next to impossible to praise an Emperor 
or a King nowadays without laying one's self bare to the 
charge of toadyism and base flattery. This is a poor 
sign of our age, for why justice should not be done to a 
man simply because he happens to occupy a Throne, 
passes my understanding. So I do not hesitate to run 
the risk common to all those who dare to tell the truth 
about Crowned Heads, even when this truth chances to 
be of a pleasant kind, and will in consequence be once 
more torn to pieces by critics of all denominations. 
" Malcsh!" as the Arab has it! 

It would be difficult to enumerate even in the briefest 
fashion all that he has done for his country during his 
relatively short reign. "A Monarchical jortn of govern- 
ment is almost as natural to men as it is to bees and ants,'' 
saith that cheerful philosopher, Schopenhauer, and Ger- 
many is a very good example of this axiom, and of the 
success which a Monarchy can achieve even in our 
time, when "the man at the wheel" knows his business, 
and attends to it. 

See, for instance, how Emperor William has succeeded, 
by dint of a clever blending of cordiality, firmness, and 
friendliness, in completely dispelling the feelings of 
openly avowed aversion entertained for him and for 
Germany at the time of his accession, by several Foreign 
Powers, and how quickly he has gained the most promi- 
nent place in the political firmament of Europe. 

When he ascended the Throne, Russia was one of the 
Great Powers most distinctly antagonistic to him; in- 
deed, when William I. was on his death-bed, almost his 
last injunction to his grandson was to be on his guard 
with Russia, and^ to try and bear with that nation's 
unfriendliness and prejudice. Alexander III., who was 

266 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

then on the Throne of the Great White Empire, abhorred 
everything German, and entertained the most vehement 
and unreasoning prejudice against the "young Hohen- 
zollern" as he called him, who was soon to become a 
brother Sovereign. This prejudice was so pronounced 
that it had driven the Czar into the arms of France, and 
had led him to break ofif the alliance hitherto subsisting 
between Austria, Germany and Russia — nor was this 
all, for he managed to communicate his extreme dis- 
like and hostility for William to the Czarina, the Czare- 
witz, and, in one word, to most of the other members of 
the House of Romanoff. 

William was very well aware of all this, and yet, 
quite undeterred thereby, four weeks or so after his 
assumption of Sovereign power, he started to pay a 
state-visit to the Czar, disregarded the chilling nature 
of his reception at St. Petersburg, treating black looks 
and even frank antagonism as absolutely non-existent, 
and continued to show himself superior to petty sen- 
timents of personal distaste where great interests were 
concerned, with the result that to-day he has accom- 
plished his end, and is "persona gratissima" not only 
at the Muscovite Court, but throughout Russia, where 
the animosity towards Germany, so rampant sixteen 
years ago, has given way to perfect good-will. This 
achievement is of world-wide importance, for the elimi- 
nation of the dread possibilities of a war between Ger- 
many and Russia is a weighty contribution to the fur- 
therance of general peace. 

In the days of which I have just spoken — that is, at the 
end of the eighties — William was looked upon as a wild- 
ly reckless young swashbuckler, eager to set fire to the 
four corners of Europe, and to plunge it into carnage 
and blood in order to adorn his brow with military lau- 
rels. To-day Europe has been forced to alter her opin- 
i8 267 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

ion considerably in this respect, and to shamefacedly 
pocket her apprehensions, for, so far, Emperor William 
has been a Prince of Peace and of Moderation, the steel 
gauntlet has been gloved with softest velvet, and al- 
though he has not thought it necessary to assert his 
pacific intentions by Peace Conferences and garlands of 
tinsel olive-branches, yet it is due to the perfection of 
his army as a fighting-machine, to his sagacity, his for- 
bearance, and his sobriety of judgment, that a general 
"melee" has not already broken out in Europe at 
different critical junctures. 

With regard to France, as I have already stated, Ger- 
many's Emperor has manifested an amount of tact and 
"savoir-faire" quite above praise, for any one endowed 
with less comprehension and patience would have been 
heartily disgusted and discouraged by the preposterous 
attitude of the French in connection with Alsace-Lor- 
raine, and greatly irritated by the fashion in which 
they expressed their singularly naive expectations. 

"The German Caligula," as the Gallic press amiably 
designates the Emperor when he has done something 
to displease "messieurs les journalisies et messieurs les 
hommes politiques" — a poor combination, at best, in 
France — is expected, if you please, to "hand back Alsace 
and Lorraine to their law fid owners, this being the only 
guarantee of reconciliation which the French nation can 
expect — the only chance of forgiveness the Emperor can 
look forward to I" (Textual.) 

Can anything be more ridiculous and pointless ? 

But far from taking offence at, or even notice of, the 
" furia Francese," Emperor William has sent large sums 
of money whenever any appeal was made in France for 
the relief of French suffering, especially in cases of sud- 
den disaster; has behaved with the utmost magnanim- 
ity to French officers captured while committing acts of 

268 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

espionage in German territory, restoring them to liberty 
instead of subjecting them to long years of imprison- 
ment (vide Jules Simon's narrative), and has, generally 
speaking, heaped coals of fire on the heads of his Gallic 
detractors. 

A French Deputy published some time ago a very 
magniloquent diatribe in a great Parisian daily, about 
the barbarism displayed by the Emperor in "retaining 
against all justice and fairness a vital portion of France, bru- 
tally torn from her side in 187 1, and still bleeding and pal- 
pitating with pain and with despair.'' This is in accord- 
ance with neither fact nor history. Alsace and Lorraine 
no longer "bleed and palpitate with pain and despair," 
while as to those Provinces being a "vital portion of 
France," little research is required to establish a very 
different opinion. Ever since the tenth century the 
territories in question were occupied by a purely 
Teutonic stock, and had been included in the old Ger- 
man Empire. It was only in 1648 that a portion of 
Alsace was ceded to France, and then only because 
French troops had so terribly devastated and impover- 
ished them that the then Emperor was unable to keep 
them as part and parcel of the German dominions. 

The slaughter of the inhabitants had been of the most 
wholesale description, so that the wretched survivors 
hated the very sight of a French uniform; indeed, the 
land had for many years to lie fallow, since there was 
not any longer a sufficient number of peasants left to 
cultivate the fields. Later on, Louis XIV. 's armies laid 
hold of the remaining portion of Alsace, but it was only 
after the Revolution of 1789 that all of what is now 
called ''Alsace-Lorraine'' was finally acquired by 
France. 

To do them justice, the Alsatians and Lorrainers never 
ceased their bitter denunciations of the French, and their 

269 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

openly avowed declarations of hatred against these Gal- 
lic oppressors, during the eighty-two years which pre- 
ceded their recapture by the Germans. But no sooner 
had this occurred than they, with touching unanim- 
ity and ''ensemble,'' promptly transferred this hatred 
to their more recent conquerors, and commenced to 
profess the most ardent devotion to France, since the 
role of a victim, when it arouses wide-spread sympathy, 
is always attractive — occasionally even of material ad- 
vantage — and the Alsatians and Lorrainers are re- 
nowned for the keenness of their appreciation of the 
main chance. 

Emperor William, however, has now won them from 
their beloved pose by his tactful management. He flat- 
tered them by appearing among them as often as possi- 
ble; he purchased the estate of Urville, in Lorraine, and 
had its grand old chateau magnificently repaired for 
use as an Imperial residence, and in one way and an- 
other he has persuaded them to become as thoroughly 
German in politics as they are in race, character, and 
origin. Witness the significant fact that, whereas the 
troops raised in these two provinces have been hither- 
to stationed in other parts of the Empire, it has re- 
cently been decreed that all recruits voluntarily present- 
ing themselves for military service shall be allowed to 
serve their time in Alsace-Lorraine, within easy reach 
of their homes and families. 

There is even ground for the belief that the Emperor's 
policy is at length bearing fruit in France herself, and 
that the revengeful hatred of the French for the Germans 
exists to-day more in the imagination of such politicians 
as the above-named "agitators" than in the hearts of 
the French people. At all events, this would seem to be 
demonstrated by the open-hearted and impulsive man- 
ner in which the soldiers of these two nations fraternized 

270 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

when they met face to face in China after the Boxer 
Revolution. 

With their usual sagacity the Chinese themselves 
designated them collectively by the words "Fanko- 
pink," which, literally translated, means "French 
soldiers," but which they applied to the only two 
factions who left the Chinese women and little chil- 
dren unmolested, and jointly protected them from the 
brutality of the Japanese and other allies. Indeed, at 
the great " jete'' given by the French to the Allied Powers 
in the "Violet City" or Imperial nucleus of Pekin in 
May, 1900, the ''bonne camaraderie'' of the German 
and French sailors and soldiers was commented upon 
by everybody, for after the great " Retraite militaire 
aux flambeaux'' around the famous Imperial "Lotus- 
Lake," long files of Teutons and Gauls in full uniform 
promenaded arm in arm singing, at the top of their 
lungs and with perfect " ensemble," alternate strophes of 
the "Marseillaise" and the "Wacht am Rhein "\ 

Field-Marshal Count Waldersee, pointing them out to 
a distinguished French naval officer with whom he was 
conversing, exclaimed: " Vous voyez bien que nous 
sommes bans amis!" adding with his customary good 
grace a few words of gratitude for the heroic man- 
ner in which, a month or so earlier, the palace he oc- 
cupied had been saved from complete destruction by 
fire, thanks to the energetic efforts of the French soldiers 
who had hurried to his rescue, and concluding his little 
speech with the very flattering and delicately courteous 
remark that of all the personal souvenirs which he lost 
then, what he most regretted was his Cross of the 
Legion of Honor. 

The Emperor has done wonders for his navy since his 
accession to the Throne. At that time he openly ex- 
pressed the ambition to create for his Empire during his 

271 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

reign, a fighting fleet which should rank among the 
greatest and most powerful of the world, and, to be 
truthful, he is in a fair way of accomplishing this aim. 
He has also completely reorganized the army — this too, 
just as was the case with the navy, in the face of all 
sorts of vexatious opposition, tacit or otherwise, ema- 
nating from moss-back veterans who objected to innova- 
tions and resented them as personal insults — and he has 
converted it into what is universally acknowledged to be 
the most perfectly ordered and armed one in the world. 

In the years that have elapsed since he took the reins 
of government in hand, with one definite object and aim 
— and that aim the greatest that man craves for, the 
glorification of his country — he has also entirely trans- 
formed the civil administration of the Prussian King- 
dom, and that of the Empire as well, endowing both 
with an entirely new and modern code of laws in keep- 
ing with modern times. 

To complete this rather inadequate description of his 
achievements, it is only necessary to add, merely men- 
tioning "en passant" the leading part he has taken in the 
matter of colonial expansion, that he has acquired at 
home the invaluable territory of Heligoland, which, com- 
manding the mouth of the Elbe, was essentially neces- 
sary to Germany; and that he has also succeeded in 
making German influence predominant in Turkey; 
that excessively shrewd and clear-sighted personage. 
His Majesty the Sultan, listening only to him, and hav- 
ing of his talents and excellence of counsel the very 
highest possible opinion. 

It is no use mincing matters at this stage of the 
game; better be accused, as usual, of painting the Royal 
lily, than, in a record the only merit of which is its ve- 
racity, to hesitate at the eleventh hour to say that no 
Monarch — none — has done for his country what William 

272 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

II. has accomplished single - handed in sixteen short 
years. There is no reason why it should not be plain- 
ly stated. 

He had the fortune at the age of twenty-nine to get 
his feet well-planted on his own particular ladder, and 
he has climbed it with bewildering swiftness ; not with 
the blind self-reliance of conceit, but with a brave 
knowledge that he was ready to do his best. Had he 
not come to the Throne then, his might have become a 
life of opportunities denied, of powers unheeded, of 
capabilities ignored, a poor, misshapen shadow of what 
it is to-day. 

The higher he now climbs the farther will his voice 
be heard, and it has long ere this been one to which the 
world cannot afford to turn a deaf ear. He is Germany's 
main-spring, of that there can be no doubt whatsoever, 
and Germany has, thanks to him, made giant steps tow- 
ards that light which is not only the appreciation of per- 
fect enlightenment — the reflection of a candle in a mir- 
ror, as it were — but the candle itself. 

See, for instance, how smoothly and quickly he has 
made permanent provision throughout his Realm for 
the old age and injury of workingmen, as well as for 
their widows and children, in the event of the latter be- 
coming fatherless. For years and years this possibility 
had been drearily and unprofitably discussed with that 
overtrained diplomacy, that mysterious melodramatic 
bating of the breath which savors so greatly of stage 
conspirators, and is invariably and spontaneously 
adopted when socialistic questions are mooted! The 
intentions of those thus employed are no doubt singu- 
larly amiable, albeit somewhat too romantic, and with 
no more backbone to them than is considered desirable 
for such purposes. The Emperor studied this emi- 
nently puzzling question in his keen, prompt, deeply 

273 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

probing fashion, and, lo and behold! in a twinkle the 
machine was set going, and the problem was solved by 
means of State-aided insurance, and of all sorts of other 
special legislation of his own devising for the benefit 
of the laboring masses. 

His was no half -hysterical effort, there was no end- 
less controversy such as is indulged in by the socialistic 
leaders whose mission it seems to be to reorganize both 
the universe and society by means of crime and blood- 
shed, there were no mysteries observed, no flamboyant 
precautions taken, no little, stagey surprises and decep- 
tions prepared, but a straightforward and manly grasp 
of the bull by the horns. He fought an open fight 
throughout, dealing with the most treacherous and un- 
reliable of matters coolly, quietly, perseveringly — this 
man who amuses himself by outwitting the cleverest 
diplomatists when it suits him to do so. Whether it 
pleases the world or not to acknowledge the fact, it 
knows "a n'en potwoir doiiter" that William II. is the 
foremost organizer it possesses, that he foresees every- 
thing, is prepared — as I have already said — for every 
emergency, and that he works so well because his heart 
is in his work. 

Yes! Emperor William is an eminently practical man, 
and what dreaming he indulges in is done in private. 
Whatever he does or says in public is to all appearances 
perfectly spontaneous and without after-thought. He 
is never at a loss in the most trying emergencies, and 
no one ever saw a look of embarrassment or self-con- 
sciousness on his face, although it sometimes wears, 
when its possessor is "en petit comite," an expression 
of calm reflectiveness characterized by a curious and 
extraordinary readiness which makes one realize that 
at any moment he is " de facto" as well as " dc jure" 
the captain of the watch. 

274 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

His singularly developed gift of gathering around him 
with unfailing discrimination just the men he requires 
is a great trump in his game, for at a glance he recog- 
nizes the value and possible usefulness of each separate 
individual, each separate pawn upon the chess-board 
of State over which he bends so assiduously. 



* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 


* 



I do not aspire to the dignity of writing a guide-book, 
therefore the descriptions of the palaces inhabited in 
rotation by the Imperial family will be, to quote Uncle 
Remus, " powjul lackm' "! 

The " Neues Palais" at Potsdam alone offers points 
of special interest, since it is William's favorite residence, 
and is not merely the usual conglomeration of splendid 
rooms, rich with porphyry, alabaster, mosaics, gilded 
flourishes and stuccoed arabesques, which one is wont 
to associate with such gorgeous dwelling-places. The 
" Neues Palais'' is something far better than that, for 
it is a home — if a superbly appointed one — in the full 
acceptation of the word, and there the Emperor has al- 
lowed his personal tastes to have full play with a really 
fine result. The great building has a frontage of nearly 
four hundred feet, and contains over two hundred rooms, 
halls, galleries, and salons. 

Everything is furnished with the extreme of refined 
luxury, and in that regard the private apartments are 
merely a continuation of the wonderful elegance and 
beauty displayed in the State drawing-rooms, the ban- 
queting-hall, the Jasper Gallery, the music-room, etc., 
and are replete with works of art from all quarters of 
the globe, gathered together mostly by the Kaiser, al- 
though his priceless collections include many costly 
specimens dating back to the days of Frederick the 
Great, and a quantity of that Monarch's personal relics, 

275 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

which his descendant prizes more highly than anything 
else there. 

Among the State apartments tliere is one that calls for 
especial mention, the famous " Muschelsaal.'" It is very 
long, displaying really vast distances of fairy-like mag- 
nificence, and its decoration is of what may be termed 
an extravagant and exquisite phantasy. The walls are 
encrusted with shells of all sizes and descriptions, each 
one gleaming with the faint, delicate, elusive chatoy- 
ment of its particular "nacre," creating waves of inex- 
pressibly beautiful iridescence wherever the eye rests. 
The effect is at one and the same time curiously sumpt- 
uous and wonderfully refreshing and original, making 
of this gallery — unique in the world — a choice retreat 
for all that is ideal, delicate, and lovely, a positive rev- 
elation of an artistic sense seldom encountered in Eu- 
rope. 

There are many other corners in this great palace 
which leave upon the visitor an ineffaceable impression 
of having dreamed and not really seen their splendor; 
for, save in museums, where the most admirable ob- 
jects are so stiffly disposed that; much of their charm 
and beauty are lost, one does not encounter so delicious 
a profusion of rarities. The design and colors of the 
silks and satins shot with gold, laminated with silver, 
embroidered and painted with the five-clawed dragons of 
Chinese Emperors, the amazingly chiselled, gem-inlaid 
bronzes, the priceless ebony carvings like petrified lace, 
the antique enamels, blue as enamels are no longer 
nowadays, the jades, the cloisonnes, the century-old 
lacquers brought from the Far East, are alone worthy 
of a sort of amazed reverence. 

The " Neues Palais" is indeed a place of great beauty 
and stateliness, surrounded as it is by grand trees and 
close-shaven, flower-adorned turf of a singularly vivid, 

276 




BREAKFASTING, " £.V TkTE-A-TETE," ON A WINTER MORNING 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

emerald green. It is a poem in stone and iron, epic 
and epopee at one and the same time, and one cannot 
help gazing with enchanted eyes at its long lines of ma- 
jestic terraces, the dusky avenues of its park, the vast, 
solemn mass of the edifice towering up against the sky, 
for it is a spot where lovers might well forget the world 
and its weight of pain. Yews and bay -trees and Him- 
alayan cedars make perpetual verdure in the back- 
ground, and immense hot-houses and orangeries make 
ceaseless summer within its walls, where magnificent 
tapestries and priceless hangings, wainscotings of pre- 
ciously inlaid woods and unique paintings of Titian, Tin- 
toretto, Rubens, Giordano, Murillo, and many other 
long-dead masters, meet the enraptured eye. 

This is no mere gorgeous shell, from which the jewel 
of life is absent, but, as I have said, a homelike spot, a 
place redolent of " chez soi," that one can care about 
with one's whole heart, and to which, wherever one may 
be, one always desires to return. The flame on one's 
own hearth has something of the altar fires about it, 
something heavenly, almost sacred, something that 
means happiness, comfort, security, peace; and the 
hearths of the " Neitcs Palais" are alone typical of such 
feelings to its Imperial owner, for in all his other resi- 
dences he is only " dc passage, tantot ici, tantot la," where- 
as with this one it is different — it is home. One might 
discover this by a mere glance at the cosey breakfast- 
room where, every morning, the Imperial couple take 
the first meal of the day alone together, not even a 
servant being allowed to disturb this " tete-a-tete," during 
which matters intimate and political, weighty and other- 
wise, are discussed. For this, winter and summer alike, 
the Empress makes a point of rising at six o'clock, and 
permits nothing to prevent her appearance at the pret- 
tily decked table a few minutes before the Emperor 

277 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

enters the room, since it is one of her greatest pleasures 
to listen to his quick, clever, earnest talk, and the 
plans and projects he puts before her with a character- 
istic art of conciseness. 

Moreover, the Emperor understands yet another art 
to perfection, and that is to surround himself with abso- 
lutely faithful servants. They are never sure that he 
may not arrive at any moment, and therefore keep 
everything in readiness for his inspection at any hour 
of the day or night. He always rewards fidelity, instead 
of, like most people, contenting himself with merely ac- 
cepting it as a due, and, in consequence, his house-ser- 
vants are not the usual mob of rogues robbing their 
master to right and to left, and speaking evilly of him on 
every possible occasion. He lets the humblest man or 
woman in his service enjoy the moral tonic of hope, 
and gives them the certitude that they may, if they so 
wish it, rise to higher offices, which is certainly a most 
efficacious method of dealing with them, and one is 
ready to take one's oath that on none of his estates do 
his people steal a "pfennig's" worth, for not only are 
they one and all very generously paid, but their probity, 
their loyalty and affection for him are discernible in 
their every act and word. 

This same enviable "savoir-faire" of his is noticeable 
in the methods he employed for the bringing up of his 
splendid family, methods that have produced extraor- 
dinarily good results in all and every instance, so far. 

The Crown Prince is a healthy -minded, healthy- 
bodied youth, who has won golden opinions from all 
those who know him. Physically he resembles his 
mother more than his father, but mentally he is very 
hke the Emperor, quick, energetic, courageous, thorough 
in everything he undertakes, and certainly destined to 
be one day just such another wise and clever Ruler. 

278 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

He does not, in spite of all the pleasures and amusements 
life offers him, look lightly or heedlessly upon it. On 
the contrary, he very seriously realizes that one who 
some day will be virtually the autocratic Sovereign of 
fifty million people, as well as the absolute master of 
the greatest military power in the world, cannot waste 
much time by the way-side. 

The years he spent at the School for Military Cadets 
at Ploen, and subsequently at the Bonn University, 
were well employed and hard-working ones, and dur- 
ing his holidays he was almost constantly with his 
father, who made a point of discussing weighty matters 
with him, and of making a companion of him in every 
sense of the word, so that a perfect and rare confidence 
exists between them, and that from an early age the 
young man has been trained in the way he should go. 

The other Princes are yet too young to be definitely 
described, but, like their elder brother, they are whole- 
some in mind and body, clever, affectionate, and ex- 
ceedingly good-natured and conscientious, while " Prin- 
zesschen" — the very core of her father's heart and 
apple of his eye — I have already portrayed. Surely Em- 
peror William can well be proud of his children, for they, 
indeed, do him honor, physically and morally, and there 
is something they will be always able to truthfully say 
of the father who has done so much for them, namely, 
that 

" Where he fixed his heart, he set his hand 
To do all things he willed." 

He has willed that his children should grow up to be 
a crown of glory to their mother and to himself, and so 
they certainly have proved to be, thus far. They have 
not been neglected, as so many children, be they high or 
be they low, be they rich or be they poor, are, nowadays 

279 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

only too often by their parents. They have never been 
allowed, metaphorically speaking, to loll into deep chairs 
with their knees higher than their heads, as it is the ten- 
dency of the rising generation to do, and they show not 
the least sign of that "/e m'enfichisinc," which marks 
our period as such a lamentably caddish one: 

" We shut our hearts up nowadays 
Like some old mtisic-box that plays 
Unfashionable airs." 

We have most of us forgotten, alas! the value of a 
well-bred calmness of demeanor and of a true courtli- 
ness of manner, but these Imperial lads at Berlin are 
upright, trim, and exquisitely brought up on strictly 
high-bred and gentlemanly lines; that is why they be- 
have under all circumstances with that finish and ab- 
sence of self-consciousness which only comes to those who 
have been trained by superior parents; that is why, also, 
they are, one and all, more attractive, more truthful, 
honest, noble, and worthier of praise than the greater 
number of their congeners, and why, lastly, they lavish 
upon their father and mother a love amounting almost 
to adoration, but by no means excluding the deepest 
and most touching respect and reverence. 

Their anxiety while the Emperor was ailing this win- 
ter was absolutely overwhelming. Absently, mechani- 
cally, they went through their allotted tasks, for many 
things had suddenly become rather violently and pain- 
fully real to them, many things they had never thought 
of before had assumed significance and importance, shak- 
ing them with very tumultuous thoughts and feelings. 

Children and very young people are slow to take alarm, 
but when once they do so are apt easily to overstep all 
bounds of reason and wisdom. These children had un- 
til then always obtained what they wanted before they 

280 




LET NOT TUV LEFT ilAXD KXdW 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

had even learned to desire, but now they seemed to be 
entering dark and narrow paths of a very sombre 
and grewsome appearance. Would they too have to 
explore those roads of pain and of sorrow which so many 
of God's creatures are forced to traverse, with but one 
ardent wish in their souls, that of being granted the 
boon of the life they pray for? — a road of many turnings, 
plentifully provided with thorny hedges to tear one on 
the way. 

When at last they reached the peace and calm of the 
harbor, when at last the benignity of the Emperor's 
malady was established beyond all manner of doubt, 
the mother and children looked curiously at each other 
with a gleam of almost fierce triumph in their haggard 
eyes. They seemed to have just returned from a field 
of battle, where they had been exposed to some mur- 
derous volley of fire and of iron. Indeed, the Empress's 
health gave way altogether, and at the present moment 
she has scarcely as yet recovered her usual spirits and 
equanimity. 

Life is full of gravity and of tragedy, but love is the 
gravest part of it, for it teaches us lessons which are 
grave tragedies in themselves, and also how to fight a 
good fight. 

That this short illness of Emperor William should 
have been so callously exploited by the sensational 
press on both sides of the Atlantic, did much to make 
this trial harder to bear both for him and his, their 
only compensation for so much unnecessary aggrava- 
tion of annoyance being the expressions of sympathy 
as well as the hopes for his recovery that poured in 
from all sides. Certainly the trivial and quite minor 
operation to which he was subjected has served one 
purpose, besides that of once and for all removing from 
the minds of those who love and admire him all idea of 

281 



IMPERATOR ET REX 

a serious disease; namely, that of showing very clearl}^ 
how greatly he has endeared himself to the hearts of his 
subjects — rich and poor alike, but especially the poor, 
among whom he so often goes quietly abroad like 
Haroun-al-Rashid, with a discerning eye and a helpful 
hand. They have come to the conclusion that they 
can ill spare him ; they know now that the continuance 
of his reign constitutes to them the best guarantee of 
peace and of prosperity, and their joy at his complete 
recovery must have gratified him profoundly. 

His first outing after this recovery was one of those 
moments that impress themselves indelibly on the mem- 
ory — a moment when words are suddenly futile, when 
hearts need them not to comprehend each other. The 
multitude cheered him madly, and the enthusiasm 
aroused by his reappearance among them filled the air 
with delighted clamors. 

His chief m.ethod of making his people love him has 
been to make himself more and more worthy of that 
great love — an odd, old-fashioned theory of action, but 
the onl}^ one that makes the permanence of love pos- 
sible ! 

Time, better than any pen, be it ever so convincing, will 
show what Germany — nay, what all Europe — has gained 
from the advent upon the scene of William H., a man 
whom so many still persist wilfully to misrepresent. 
He has had throughout the courage of his opinion, 
disdaining that of the world; he has risked all to reach 
his aim, sparing neither his time, his strength, nor his 
pains by night or by day, and his reward is at last 
within his hand. Who will dare to say that it is not 
well-earned ? 



THE END 











w 

* s^ 




' 


'^oo^ 








>^ 


'^'t 














.^^ 






'**, 


^0 








/ 




'' '; 


1 \ 










.^' 










% 


<' 

•^ 






s 










- 


^•-\ ^ r 




'^/. 


.0'' 








^ 

x^^'' 










<^ ■' < 


. X-* 


^ ,'\ 










-^5^ 




A^ 


.^ '^ 


'■ . -^-^ 








., -^ 




A--^ 




' ^- 








^^^ 


v^^' 






-^a 


0^ 














^ 




\ ■ r, ■- , 






-^ 


;:« ■ 


■ ^Ji 


-^ 


<i," 














aV 


•/• 















•^.. 





















^-p 










^ 




' o 


0' 










^A 


V^" 








* 


^ 


■'t. . 








x° 


°. 








s** 






**.; 


* ,, 


N ^ , 


/ 










\ 












o 


V 






'<? 
















/X^" 








H> 


.^^^^ 












% 


^'^ 


^- 






•^^ 

/ 


% 












,x*^' 











^^ ~^^ V^ - '' ->- Deacldified using the Bookkeeper process. 

» ' ^ * '^ ^ ' Neutralizing agent; Magnesium Oxide 

= X^ °^. ■ T^,r " ^ 't , Treatment Date: .... ~n»4 

> ^^^ ^- ^^nv^; ^ '■>^ JUL 2001 

,;0 ^e^ '*lT^»Vx> %. _ ^ PreservationTechnologies 

'^(^''''"/^O '-'/■^ _.0' * WO""-© UEADEB IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

^ ,(« 55,*^, 'J^, ^,, ■-•%^. '',. ,p ■■\* ~ 111 Thomson Park DfivB 

* ' '• " ' ^tP. .■^ -■' •S' c!^' "* Cranberry Township. PA 16066 

'^ ^ -X ^ (724)779-2111 









o 0' 






<p, .-iv 















.:.N^^ 



v^^ 



.•f^ 












■^^ ^^' 

.-i,"^^ 






. ^. 



^V 'c*. 



r*\-' 



^^ V^ 















.0 O. 



.^"^ ■^> 



•'"y. 0> 






<^- 



\^ 



<i^ 



A^^ ^/>, 









'^>- >>^ 



■f^. A'" 



v^J-"^ -% 



.^ -7-^ 



-<>^^ 






IMPER 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





SS 



007 803 180 3 



mlK 



s9g»aaa»'&«agi»wat><»«wi i mmwm** 






.^mimmamm^i^ff^i^. 




iv4!iesi*-iisse>9«em«^aai9^ass>f 



l«4Hi»4HB«4 






THE- MART TRDOM-OFAN'EMPRE S; 



